Information about Optical Phenomenon
An optical phenomenon is any observable event which results from the interaction of light and matter. See also list of optical topics and optics.
Common optical phenomena are often due to the interaction of light from the sun or moon with the atmosphere, clouds, water, or dust and other particulates. One common example would be the rainbow, when light from the sun is reflected off water droplets in rain as it falls to the ground. Others, such as the green flash, are rare due to atmospheric conditions. Some, such as instances of Fata morgana, are commonplace only in certain locations.
Other phenomena are simply interesting aspects of optics, or optical effects. The colors generated by a prism are often shown in classrooms for instance.
Some optical illusions can be explained as observations of unusual optical phenomena.
Observations of some phenomena such as the photoelectric effect, the flow of electric current in a material or through a vacuum (as in a photocell) when the material is exposed to light, led to advances in science, as they could not be easily explained by existing theory.
Common optical phenomena are often due to the interaction of light from the sun or moon with the atmosphere, clouds, water, or dust and other particulates. One common example would be the rainbow, when light from the sun is reflected off water droplets in rain as it falls to the ground. Others, such as the green flash, are rare due to atmospheric conditions. Some, such as instances of Fata morgana, are commonplace only in certain locations.
Other phenomena are simply interesting aspects of optics, or optical effects. The colors generated by a prism are often shown in classrooms for instance.
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Sun Halo at latitude 41 degrees South
A list of optical phenomena
Entopic phenomena include optical phenomena arising from the structures of the eye.Some optical illusions can be explained as observations of unusual optical phenomena.
Atmospheric optical phenomena
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The Circumzenithal Arc over Grand Forks, ND
- Afterglow
- Airglow
- Alexander's band, the dark region between the two bows of a double rainbow.
- Alpenglow
- Anticrepuscular rays
- Auroral light (northern and southern lights, aurora borealis and aurora australis)
- Belt of Venus
- Circumzenithal arc
- Crepuscular rays
- Earthquake lights
- Elves http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/21/science/21SHUT.html?todaysheadlines
- Glories (also known as Brocken's Specter or Specter of the Brocken)
- the Green ray
- Halos, of Sun or Moon, including sun dogs
- Heiligenschein or halo effect, partly caused by the Opposition effect
- Light pillar
- Rainbows
- Mirages (including Fata Morgana)
- Sprites http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/21/science/21SHUT.html?todaysheadlines
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Sun Halo
- Shadow set
- Tyndall effect
Other optical phenomena
Optical effects
- Asterism, star gems such as star sapphire or star ruby.
- Aura, a phenomenon in which gas or dust surrounding an object luminesces or reflects light from the object.
- Aventurescence, also called the Schiller effect, spangled gems such as aventurine quartz and sunstone.
- The camera obscura
- Caustics
- Chatoyancy, cat's eye gems such as chrysoberyl cat's eye or aquamarine cat's eye
- Chromatic polarization
- Cathodoluminescence
- Diffraction, the apparent bending and spreading of light waves when they meet an obstruction.
- Dispersion
- Double refraction
- The Double-slit experiment
- Electroluminescence
- Evanescent wave
- Fluorescence, also called luminescence or photoluminescence.
- Phosphorescence
- metamerism as of alexandrite
- Newton's rings
- Pleochroism gems or crystals which seem many-colored
- Polarized light-related phenomena such as double refraction, or Haidinger's brush
- Rayleigh scattering (Why the sky is blue, sunsets are red, clouds are white, and associated phenomena)
- Refraction
- Sonoluminescence
- Shrimpoluminescence
- Synchrotron radiation
- The separation of light into colors by a prism
- Triboluminescence
- The Zeeman effect
- Thomson Scattering
- Total internal reflection
- Twisted light
- The Umov effect
- The ability of light to travel through space or through a vacuum.
Entoptic phenomena
- Diffraction of light through the eye lashes
- Floaters
- Haidinger's brush
- Monocular diplopia (or polyplopia) from reflections at boundaries between the various ocular media
- Phosphenes from stimulation other than by light (e.g., mechanical, electrical) of the rod cells and cones of the eye or of other neurons of the visual system
- Purkinje images.
Optical illusions
- The unusually large size and rich color of the Moon as it rises and sets
Observations of some phenomena such as the photoelectric effect, the flow of electric current in a material or through a vacuum (as in a photocell) when the material is exposed to light, led to advances in science, as they could not be easily explained by existing theory.
Unexplained phenomena
Some phenomena are still unexplained, and they could very possibly be some kind of optical phenomena. Some consider many of these "mysteries" to be simply local tourist attractions not worthy of investigation. [1]- Marfa lights http://www.qsl.net/w5www/marfa.html
- Hessdalen lights http://www.outtahear.com/beyond_updates/Mantle/Hess.htm
- Min Min lights http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=4265
- Light of Saratoga http://geoexplorer.tamu.edu/bigthicket/stories/saratogalight.html
External links
- Atmospheric Optics Reference site
- SpaceW Site for reporting Aurora activity data
- Spaceweather.com Official NASA site with many photos
- Astronomy in New Zealand Many atmospheric optical effect photos and descriptions
Further reading
- Thomas D. Rossing and Christopher J. Chiaverina, Light Science: Physics and the Visual Arts, Springer, New York, 1999, hardback, ISBN 0-387-98827-0
- Robert Greenler, Rainbows, Halos, and Glories, Elton-Wolf Publishing, 1999, hardback, ISBN 0-89716-926-3
- Polarized Light in Nature, G. P. Können, Translated by G. A. Beerling, Cambridge University Press, 1985, hardcover, ISBN 0-521-25862-6
- M.G.J. Minnaert, Light and Color in the Outdoors, ISBN 0-387-97935-2
- John Naylor "Out of the Blue: A 24-hour Skywatcher's Guide", CUP, 2002, ISBN 0-521-80925-8
- Abenteuer im Erdschatten (German).
Light is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the eye (visible light). In a scientific context, the word "light" is sometimes used to refer to the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
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matter is commonly defined as the substance of which physical objects are composed, not counting the contribution of various energy or force-fields, which are not usually considered to be matter per se (though they may contribute to the mass of objects).
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Probably some Wikipedia articles on topics in optics are not yet listed on this page. If you cannot find the topic you are interested in on this page, the article may nonetheless exist; you can try to find it using the "Search" box, or look in and its subcategories.
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Optics (ὀπτική appearance or look in Ancient Greek) is a branch of physics that describes the behavior and properties of light and the interaction of light with matter.
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Rainbows are optical and meteorological phenomena that cause a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere.
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Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point.
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fata morgana, Italian translation of Morgan le Fay, the fairy shapeshifting half-sister of King Arthur, is a mirage, an optical phenomenon which results from a temperature inversion.
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Optics (ὀπτική appearance or look in Ancient Greek) is a branch of physics that describes the behavior and properties of light and the interaction of light with matter.
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Eyes are organs of vision that detect light. Different kinds of light-sensitive organs are found in a variety of organisms. The simplest eyes do nothing but detect whether the surroundings are light or dark, while more complex eyes can distinguish shapes and colors.
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optical illusion is always characterized by visually perceived images that, at least in common sense terms, are deceptive or misleading. Therefore, the information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain to give, on the face of it, a percept that does not tally with a
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An afterglow is a broad high arch of whitish or rosy light appearing in the sky due to very fine particles of dust suspended in the high regions of the atmosphere. An afterglow may appear above the highest clouds in the hour of deepening twilight, or reflected from the high
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airglow is the very weak emission of light by the Earth's atmosphere; as a result, the night sky is never completely dark. It was first noticed in 1868 by Anders Ångström. It is caused by various processes in the upper atmosphere, such as the recombination of ions which were
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Alexander's band or Alexander's dark band is an optical phenomenon associated with rainbows which was named after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it. It occurs due to the deviation angles of the primary and secondary rainbows.
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Alpenglow (from German: Alpenglühen) is an optical phenomenon. When the Sun sets, a horizontal red glowing band can sometimes be observed to the east. In mountainous areas, such as the Alps, this can be caused by snow, moisture, or ice on mountain sides which receive the
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Anticrepuscular rays are similar to crepuscular rays, but seen opposite the sun in the sky. Sunlight travels in straight lines, but the projections of these lines on Earth's spherical atmosphere are great circles.
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Auroras (or aurorae) [sing: aurora] are natural colored light displays, which are usually observed in the night sky, particularly in the polar zone. Some scientists therefore call them "polar auroras" (or "aurorae polaris").
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The Belt of Venus or Venus's Girdle is the Victorian era name for an atmospheric phenomenon seen at sunrise and sunset. Shortly after sunset or shortly before sunrise the observer is, or is very nearly, surrounded by a pinkish glow or antitwilight arch that extends roughly
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circumzenithal arc or cicumzenith arc (CZA), also called the Bravais' arc, is an optical phenomenon similar in appearance to a rainbow and arising from refraction of sunlight through non-terminated, horizontally-oriented ice crystals in certain clouds.
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Crepuscular rays, in atmospheric optics, also known as sun rays or God's rays, are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. These rays, which stream through gaps in clouds, are diverging columns of sunlit air separated by darker
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An earthquake light is an unusual luminous aerial phenomenon, similar in appearance to the aurora borealis, that appears in the sky at or near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity or volcanic eruptions. They are especially visible at night.
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glory is an optical phenomenon produced by light backscattered (a combination of diffraction, reflection and refraction) towards its source by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. A glory has multiple colored rings. Most people see only one ring.
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Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point.
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halo (ἅλως; also known as a nimbus or Gloriole) is a ring of light that surrounds an object.
Halos, also known as icebows, are optical phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near
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Halos, also known as icebows, are optical phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near
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sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, e.g. "with the sun") is a relatively common halo, an atmospheric optical phenomenon mostly associated with the refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds.
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Heiligenschein (German for "aureole", literary "holy light") is an optical phenomenon which creates a bright spot around the shadow of the viewer's head. It is created when the surface on which the shadow falls has special optical characteristics.
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The opposition effect (also opposition spike, or opposition surge) is the brightening of a rough surface, or an object with many particles, when illuminated from directly behind the observer.
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light pillar is a visual phenomenon created by the reflection of light from ice crystals with near horizontal parallel planar surfaces. The light can come from the sun (usually at or low to the horizon) in which case the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or
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Rainbows are optical and meteorological phenomena that cause a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere.
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mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon, in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French mirage, from the Latin mirare, meaning 'to appear, to seem'.
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fata morgana, Italian translation of Morgan le Fay, the fairy shapeshifting half-sister of King Arthur, is a mirage, an optical phenomenon which results from a temperature inversion.
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