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From: jfc@athena.mit.edu (John F Carr)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,sci.misc
Subject: Re: The Last Word on Friedman, Sevener, and Cuba
Message-ID: <3884@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 18 Mar 88 21:43:02 GMT
References: <3699@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <9979@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> <1625@louie.udel.EDU>
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Reply-To: jfc@athena.mit.edu (John F Carr)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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In article <1625@louie.udel.EDU> berryh@udel.EDU (John Berryhill) writes:

>>Tim Sevener needs to do some research on MIRAGES. Mirages

: Someone else brought this up, but I thought it was obvious
: to most people here that this isn't going to happen over
: the water between Key West and Cuba.  John Carr threw in a
: snide comment about temperature inversion.  Everybody
: has seen the shimmering "pools of water" on a hot road
: in the summer.  A "hot road," that is.  In fact, the road
: surface has to be hotter than the air above it for this
: to happen.  Would Mr. Carr please smugly explain how the
: water surface is going to be significantly hotter than
: the air above it on a nice day in Florida (not over the
: Gulf Stream either)?
: 
: Temperature inversions are significantly influenced by
: the local geography.  A nice flat sea isn't going to
: do much for you.

It should be obvious: a hot road, hotter than the air, creates a layer
of hot air which reflects light coming from above.  A body of relatively
cold water creates a layer of cooler air, which refracts light down (that
is, makes the source appear higher).  Opposite temperature gradient,
opposite effect.  Refraction is increased if, as you say, the water is
cooler.

The air temperature in Florida does at times get hotter than water 
temperature.  That will create a temperature inversion, but I don't
know how big.  Since no one has posted any specific numbers on this,
I assume no one else does either.  And that is the whole point of my
argument: it has not been proved that it is impossible to see Cuba from
Key West.

   John Carr                 "No one wants to make a terrible choice
   jfc@Athena.MIT.EDU         On the price of being free"