Sunset Mirage Here's how Andy Young (a mirage specialist)comments the sunset: "The towering of the image (very great vertical stretching) is quite unusual in this sunset. The other noteworthy feature is the extreme gradient of extinction near the horizon. That indicates a very shallow haze layer -- most likely trapped by the inversion that produced the distortion of the image.

The extinction effect shows up not only in the transmitted solar image, but in the brightness and color gradients in the sky. Notice how much darker and bluer (or grayer, anyway) it is near the horizon than a degree