The effect of the New Earth: how to see the sun during the polar night

The polar night, as you know, is observed in the extreme northern and southern regions of our planet, when the sun does not appear above the horizon. In the Northern Hemisphere, polar night is observed in all latitudes located north of 67º s. w ... But, under certain conditions, the sun can be seen above the horizon and during the polar night, without resorting to any technological tricks and tricks.

In the fall of 1596, members of a polar expedition led by the Dutch navigator Willem Barents were captured: the ship was sandwiched in the ice of the harsh Arctic Ocean. The sailors who were looking for the northern sea route to Asia had no choice but to stay to spend the winter on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It was during this difficult wintering in January 1597 that the expedition members witnessed an unusual optical phenomenon, which was later called the New Earth effect.

Two sailors saw the sunrise during the polar night. The sun appeared briefly above the horizon and disappeared again, and the amazed sailors left a diary entry for this event. After returning to their homeland, sailors talked about an unusual phenomenon, but no one believed them, since the sun could not appear over the horizon during the polar night. Everyone was satisfied with a simple explanation: the sailors mixed up the dates, and the short appearance of the sun they observed above the horizon occurred after the end of the polar night.

It is interesting that a similar phenomenon was also observed by other participants in expeditions during the polar nights, including in Antarctica. But scientists could only establish the true cause of the solar anomaly at the end of the 20th century. It turned out that the Barents expedition and other sailors witnessed the optical illusion that is observed in the polar latitudes during the polar night.

The appearance of a "nonexistent" sunrise is observed during temperature inversions, when the air temperature rises with height. Under such conditions, when the air temperature at the icy, cooled surface is significantly lower than at altitude, multiple reflection and refraction of sunlight in the inversion layers of the atmosphere occurs. Moreover, the sun itself is actually below the horizon, and the observer sees only its reflection, which has an irregular shape.