Mirage - Heat Haze

Heat Haze

Heat haze, also called heat shimmer, refers to the distortive effect experienced when viewing objects through a layer of heated air, for example across hot asphalt or through the exhaust gases produced by jet engines.

Convection causes the temperature and hence the refractive index of the air to vary, and so a blurred shimmering effect is produced which affects the ability to resolve objects, the effect being increased when the image is magnified through a telescope or telephoto lens.

Heat Haze is not related to the atmospheric phenomenon of haze.

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