Optical phenomenon
{{Short description|Observable events that result from the interaction of light and matter}}
File:Moon 22 degree halo atherton ca.jpg around the Moon in Atherton, California]]
Optical phenomena are any observable events that result from the interaction of light and matter.
All optical phenomena coincide with quantum phenomena.{{cite book |last1=Lahiri |first1=Avijit |chapter=Electromagnetic Theory and Optics |title=Basic Optics: Principles and Concepts |year=2016 |pages=1–140 |publisher=Elsevier |publication-date=2016 |doi=10.1016/B978-0-12-805357-7.00001-0 |isbn=978-0-12-805357-7}} Common optical phenomena are often due to the interaction of light from the Sun or Moon with the atmosphere, clouds, water, dust, and other particulates. One common example is the rainbow, when light from the Sun is reflected and refracted by water droplets. Some phenomena, such as the green ray, are so rare they are sometimes thought to be mythical.{{cite web|url=http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/observing/greenray.html|title=Green Rays|website=mintaka.sdsu.edu}} Others, such as Fata Morganas, are commonplace in favored locations.
Other phenomena are simply interesting aspects of optics, or optical effects. For instance, the colors generated by a prism are often shown in classrooms.
File:SunHaloOverGoldenBay4thFeb06.jpg as seen from 41° south latitude]]
Scope
Optical phenomena encompass a broad range of events, including those caused by atmospheric optical properties, other natural occurrences, man-made effects, and interactions involving human vision (entoptic phenomena). Also listed here are unexplained phenomena that could have an optical explanation and "optical illusions" for which optical explanations have been excluded.
There are multiple phenomena that result from either the particle or the wave nature of light. Some are quite subtle and observable only by precise measurement using scientific instruments. A famous example is the bending of starlight by the Sun during a solar eclipse, a phenomenon that serves as evidence for the curvature of space as predicted by the theory of relativity.
Atmospheric optics
{{excerpt|List of atmospheric optical phenomena}}
Non-atmospheric optical phenomena
File:Double Green Flash.jpg appears above the solar disc for a second or so. One such occurrence was taken from Cerro Paranal.]]
=Other 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
- Baily's beads, grains of sunlight visible in total solar eclipses.
- camera obscura
- Cathodoluminescence
- Caustics
- Chatoyancy, cat's eye gems such as chrysoberyl cat's eye or aquamarine cat's eye
- Chromatic polarization
- Diffraction, the apparent bending and spreading of light waves when they meet an obstruction
- Dispersion
- Double refraction or birefringence of calcite and other minerals
- Double-slit experiment
- Electroluminescence
- Evanescent wave
- Fluorescence, also called luminescence or photoluminescence
- Mie scattering (Why clouds are white)
- Metamerism as of alexandrite
- Moiré pattern
- Newton's rings
- Phosphorescence
- Pleochroism gems or crystals, which seem "many-colored"
- Rayleigh scattering (Why the sky is blue, sunsets are red, and associated phenomena)
- Reflection
- Refraction
- Sonoluminescence
- Shrimpoluminescence
- Synchrotron radiation
- The separation of light into colors by a prism
- Triboluminescence
- Thomson scattering
- Total internal reflection
- Twisted light
- Umov effect
- Zeeman effect
- The ability of light to travel through space or through a vacuum.
=Entoptic phenomena=
{{Main|Entoptic phenomenon}}
- Diffraction of light through the eyelashes
- 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=
{{Main|Optical illusion}}
- The unusually large size of the Moon as it rises and sets, the Moon illusion
- The shape of the sky, the sky bowl
Unexplained phenomena
{{See also|Forteana|Will-o'-the-wisp|Unidentified flying object}}
Some phenomena are yet to be conclusively explained and may possibly be some form of optical phenomena. Some{{Weasel inline|date=April 2010}} consider a number of these "mysteries" to simply be local tourist attractions that are not worthy of thorough investigation.{{cite web|url=http://www.stateoftheart.nl/phenomenon/index2.html|title=Welcome to Phenomenon! Your guide through the mysterious and unexplained|website=www.stateoftheart.nl}}
- Hessdalen lights{{cite web|url=http://www.outtahear.com/beyond_updates/Mantle/Hess.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050404125856/http://www.outtahear.com/beyond_updates/Mantle/Hess.htm|title=The Hessdalen Lights|author=Philip Mantle|archive-date=4 April 2005|access-date=14 October 2017}}
- Min Min lights{{cite web|url=http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=4265|title=UQ scientist unlocks secret of Min Min lights}}
- Light of Saratoga{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050304081817/http://geoexplorer.tamu.edu/bigthicket/stories/saratogalight.html|url=http://geoexplorer.tamu.edu/bigthicket/stories/saratogalight.html|title=Big Thicket National Preserve Virtual Field Trip|archive-date=4 March 2005}}
- Naga fireballs{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501021125-391567,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070119083937/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501021125-391567,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 19, 2007|title=Behind the Secret of the Naga's Fire|first=Jason|last=Gagliardi|date=17 November 2002|via=www.time.com}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Source
{{cite book |doi=10.1016/B978-044452830-8/50008-8 |chapter=Wave Optics and Quantum–Optical Phenomena |title=Physics for Chemists |year=2007 |last1=Ozerov |first1=Ruslan P. |last2=Vorobyev |first2=Anatoli A. |pages=361–422 |isbn=978-0-444-52830-8 }}
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}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20030914050828/http://www.wienerzeitung.at/frameless/extra.htm?ID=9898 Abenteuer im Erdschatten] (German).
- [http://esurfmar.meteo.fr/wikilog/index.php/Main_Page The Marine Observers' Log]
External links
{{Commonscat|Optical phenomena}}
- [http://www.atoptics.co.uk/ Atmospheric Optics] Reference site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Optical Phenomenon}}