What is atmospheric refraction? Explain.
Answers
The earth’s atmosphere consists of different layers of air. From these, some layers of air with low densities are hot, while the others with high densities are cold. The hot layers of air act as the optically rarer medium for the rays of light, whereas the cold layers of air act as the optically denser medium for rays of light. Hence, when rays of light are emitted by an object in the atmosphere, these rays pass through the atmosphere having varying layers of air with varied densities and are refracted by the atmosphere.
Therefore, the refraction of light triggered by the earth’s atmosphere is termed as ‘Atmospheric Refraction’.
Answer:
Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of height.