importance of atmospheric refraction in daily life
Answers
a. Twinkling of Stars
After passing through the earth’s atmosphere having different layers of air with different optical densities, the rays of light coming from the stars finally reach our eyes. But, due to the change in the temperature conditions, the optical densities of different layers of air keep changing continuously. Because of which, the rays of light coming from a star are refracted to different degrees at different moments of time, and the path of refracted rays keeps changing. Hence, sometimes due to the amount of light refracted towards our eyes is more stars appear bright to us, on the other hand sometimes since less light is refracted towards our eyes, the stars appear dim to us. This gives us the twinkling of stars.
b. Sun is visible 2 minutes before the actual sunrise and 2 minutes after the actual sunset
Due to the atmospheric refraction, we can see the sun 2 minutes before and after actual sunrise and sunset. The rays of light emitted by the sun are refracted towards the ground while travelling through the optically rarer layers of air in the atmosphere; when the Sun is slightly below the horizon. This results in making the sun appear slightly raised above the horizon and hence the sun is visible 2 minutes before and after actual sunrise and sunset
c. Mirage
In summers in desserts, due to atmospheric refraction is an optical illusion known as ‘Mirage’ occurs. During the mirage, an object such as a tree appears to be inverted and appears to be on the bank of a pond. On a hot summer day, since the layers of air near earth’s surface become hot, these layers act optically rarer medium.Whereas, the layers of air above the earth’s surface are cooler and therefore act as the optically denser medium. Light, therefore, refracts when it travels through a sudden transition between layers of cold and hot air.
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Answer:
it's very important without any atmospheric refraction no one can survivee