Fata Morgana Or What You Can Learn While Watching Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.

Fata Morgana (or Morgan L'Fay) was as all you all know the famed sorceress of Arthurian Legend. Nowadays, it is a name for a thing and not a woman, and if you all ready know what the term means, kindly leave no comments squelching the enthusiasm of those currently less educated than yourself because really The Equuschick & Co. had no idea and having just discovered Fata Morganas they're quite taken up with them. (You may also go away if you are a grammatical snob who objects to long sentances.)
You are welcome however to comment adding any information on the phemonenon, or making any corrections to the information The Equuschick has been able to gather haphazardly. Physical science has never been her thing and there were parts of this that were confusing.
Fata Morgana lived in a castle under the sea, and the legend says that at times she would allow an airy image of her castle to arise from the ocean surface and thus lure unfortunate sailors to a harbor that wasn't there. (Nobody ever said she was nice. Just famous.)
And thus today, Fata Morgana is simply the term for a mirage that arises from an ice or ocean surface and gives an impression of a solid surface. The most impressive image The Equuschick was able to find is the one on this page. (She would have moved it to a more convenient location if she had known how.)
Not all the mirages are as dramatic as this, nor do all Fata Morganas even present the image of a castle. The term (as far as The Equuschick has been able to discover) has evolved to describe any mirage whatsoever that arises from the sea, or when something solid appears to be floating in the air. (This explains why The Equuschick was so confused during Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the only mirages she'd ever thought about were those found in the desert. Silly and very narrow-minded of her.)
Fata Morganas are, apparantly, what are known as superior images- The light rays go down instead of up, and thus give the illusion of floating objects. What also happens is that several images are super-imposed on one. (The Equuschick feels this is a terribly inadequate explanation of something she doesn't quite understand and if there are any experts out there she would like them to help her out in plain English.)
People have considered whether Fata Morganas have been responsible for stories of the Flying Dutchman and such. Not surprisngly, it is also possible that the mirage itself may have given rise to the legend which has in turn given the name to the mirage. These sort of images, it seems, only arise when there are alternating levels of warm and cold air above a body of water. The primary location is actually the Strait of Messina, and they also occur in Alaska, but the necessary climate for a Fata Morgana is also often present in Wales- where many Arthurian legends orginated.

Well, The Equuchick thought it was all most fascinating.
She hopes she has not led you all too far astray because obviously, she really didn't know what she was talking about when it came to the technical bits. If you would like to explain all this to her in small and simple words, she would be most grateful.