Abstract. A simple experiment is presented to visualize inferior and superior mirages in the laboratory. A quantitative analysis is done using ray tracing with both photographic and computational techniques. The mirage's image, as seen by the eye or the camera lens, can be used to analyse the deflection and inversion of light rays.

Print publication: Issue 6 (November 2009)
Received 28 May 2009, in final form 16 June 2009