Give an example of optical phenomena which occur in nature due to atmospheric refraction.

Twinkling of stars: The twinkling of stars is due to the atmospheric refraction of the star’s light

When the light coming from a star enters the earth’s atmosphere, it undergoes refraction due to the varying optical densities of air at various altitudes. The atmosphere is continuously changing (due to which the optical densities of air at different levels in the atmosphere keep on changing).



The continuously changing atmosphere refracts the light from the stars by different amounts from one moment to the next. When the atmosphere refracts more star light, the star appears bright and when the atmosphere refracts less star’s light then star appears to be dim. This leads to the twinkling of stars.


7