Sinking Ship Effect Caused By Refraction

Work in Progress

The Sinking Ship Effect is an effect by which distant bodies appear to sink into the surface of the earth. This effect was used as a direct proof in ancient times for the earth's spherical nature, and is the causative reason for why mankind adopted the globular hypothesis.

In Earth Not a Globe by Samuel Birely Rowbotham the author discovers that this effect is inconsistent. Sometimes it occurs, and at other times it does not occur. A distant body such as a lighthouse will sometimes seem to be obscured, and that at other times the lighthouse will be revealed, allowing the observer can often see further than the globe earth should allow. This inconsistent nature significantly weakens the argument that this effect must the result of a spherical earth.

With the advent of photography and time-lapse photography we can analyze this phenomenon closely to determine its true nature.

Causes

The sinking ship effect has been determined to be due to two causes:

Lack of Optical Resolution

The sinking ship effect can sometimes be caused by a lack of optical resolution whereby elements of the hull can seem to merge into the sea. This can be reversed with optical magnification. See Sinking Ship Effect Caused By Limits to Optical Resolution

Inferior Mirage

At other times the sinking ship cannot be reversed. In these cases the cause of the sinking effect is seen to be due to the common inferior mirage which regularly occurs for long periods of time over the surface of water. This effect is marked by compression of bodies near the surface, and often appears with a thin light line bordering the water. Over a period of time this sinking effect will disappear, revealing distant bodies.

Skunk Bay Timelapse

The Skunk Bay Timelapses were taken by the Skunk Bay Weather organization with zoom photography, showing the dynamic refraction effect in action on a peninsula in the distance. Below are high resolution versions of the available Skunk Bay peninsula scenes. In these scenes the peninsula is at times visible and hidden.

09/07/12 Timelapse

09/07/12 Timelapse
On this day there was a mixture of sunken and visible effects

09/06/12 Timelapse

09/06/12 Timelapse
On this day the peninsula was sunken throughout most of the day

09/01/12 Timelapse

09/01/12 Timelapse
On this day the peninsula was visible throughout most of the day

Skunk Bay Peninsula Revealed

At times over the course of a day, for long periods, the opposite peninsula is seen to be fully revealed:

Skunk Bay Peninsula Hidden

At other times of the day, and for long periods, the opposite bay appears to be hidden.

When the sunken scene is observed closely, and compared with the revealed version, we see that it is not a perfect effect. The sunken version contains compression and squishing of bodies near the surface, with a thin light line bordering the water.

Skunk Bay Peninsula Transition

Below is an animation of the transition effect between sunken and revealed scenes.

What we learn:

- The sinking effect can happen for long periods of time over a single day

- The sinking effect is seen to happen repeatedly over multiple days, in all available timelapses of that peninsula

- In the sunken version of the scene there is a light line bordering the waterline where it otherwise should not be
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- In the sunken version the area above the light line is vertically compressed
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- The line of compression is visible when the peninsula is front-lit, and is not visible when it is later in the day and the peninsula is darker and back-lit
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- An inferior mirage is seen to compress and decompress from the light line
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Cause: Inferior Mirage

Increasing Altitude Reveals Additional Area

Diagram

Modified Diagram

Other Resources

Mirages in a Bottle
Link to Paper

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 analyze the deflection and inversion of light rays."

Skunk Bay Scan with Zoom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxpY4oY1pvs

An observation of the bay unzoomed.