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Skyscrapers of a bleak city loom out of icy mist on Tazov peninsula - but it is an amazing mirage

By 0 and 0 and 0
10 December 2018

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The picture was snapped by a worker at Yamburgskoe oil and gas condensate field.

The amazing phantom city was pictured from Yamburgskaya gas-compressor station some 150 kilometres above the polar circle.

The temperature here was reported to be a bone-chilling minus 50C.

Nearest city Novy Urengoy with a 115,000 population is some 130 kilometres to the south.

The picture was snapped by a worker at Yamburgskoe oil and gas condensate field, on Tazov peninsula in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district.

Arctic mirage

The amazing phantom city was pictured from Yamburgskaya gas-compressor station some 150 kilometres above the polar circle.

The mirage is believed to be a Fata Morgana, most commonly seen in polar regions.

This involves a thermal inversion .

It is known as a complex form of superior mirage seen in a narrow band immediately above the horizon.

The curvature of the light rays within the inversion layer is stronger than the curvature of the Earth.

Yamburgskoe oil and gas condensate field, on Tazov peninsula in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district.

Yamburg field


Yamburg field

Comments (2)

So we see these remarkable images, and say; "Yes of course, I must take the cruise ship to Vladivostok (the Pacific terminus of the Trans Siberian railroad), and then ride the train for days into the heart of Siberia to witness this for myself!"

Well, perhaps not. Small versions of the effect are easy to find. At the WalMart parking lot, lay down on your side with one eye about 2-3 inches off the asphalt, and look across the flat lot. Under many conditions, hot or cold, the shimmer is there. Straight stretches of railroad (which kinda defines rr) work even better ... but more people have WalMart handy, than the Trans Siberia tracks. Do not place the side of your face on the steel rail, in Yatutia, in December.

I live on the coast of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, separating the far NW of the USA from the far SW of Canada. We look about 30 miles across the saltwater to the coast of Vancouver Island (which hosts the capital of the western province British Columbia, Victoria), and often see the banks & bluffs of their beaches greatly elongated vertically, quite similar to these photos.

It is said that early navigators like Christopher Colombus, who discovered that the Americas were already owned & occupied by other peoples, knew the world was round by the fact that the masts of ships could be seen poking above the watery horizon, while the hull was below it. But even more-compelling, observers also often saw whole ships seemingly floating in the air above the water. And since they knew well what a mirage was, they savvied that this was a vessel out-of-sight over the curvature of the planet, being imaged along a ducting inversion-layer.

Very nice story, awesome pics, and I'd still like to take the train and see it in Siberia!
Ted Clayton, Forks, Washington, USA
20/12/2018 00:40
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no photoshop can do what mother nature can do so perfect, easy and super!
MORAK Benedikt, Moscow
10/12/2018 17:08
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