The Min Min light and the Fata Morgana. An optical account of a mysterious Australian phenomenon.
BACKGROUND
Despite intense interest in this mysterious Australian phenomenon, the Min Min light has never been explained in a satisfactory way.


RESULTS
An optical explanation of the Min Min light phenomenon is offered, based on a number of direct observations of the phenomenon, as well as a field demonstration, in the Channel Country of Western Queensland. This explanation is based on the inverted mirage or Fata Morgana, where light is refracted long distances over the horizon by the refractive index gradient that occurs in the layers of air during a temperature inversion. Both natural and man-made light sources can be involved, with the isolated light source making it difficult to recognise the features of the Fata Morgana that are obvious in daylight and with its unsuspected great distance contributing to the mystery of its origins.


CONCLUSIONS
Many of the strange properties of the Min Min light are explicable in terms of the unusual optical conditions of the Fata Morgana, if account is also taken of the human factors that operate under these highly-reduced stimulus conditions involving a single isolated light source without reference landmarks.
Pettigrew
John D
JD
Vision Touch and Hearing Research Centre, Ritchie Research Labs, Research Road, University of Queensland, 4072, Australia.
D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D009903:Optical Illusions / Q000502:physiology*; D010781:Photography; D011793:Queensland; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D013696:Temperature; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology