Blazing dunes under a relentless sun. Watch the horizon shimmer with an illusory oasis. Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom.
A mirage forms when light refracts through air layers of differing density: sand baked by the sun heats the air right above it, making that layer less dense so light rays bend upward as they travel toward your eye. Your brain interprets the bent light as a reflection, so the sky appears to "pool" like water on the horizon — a classic inferior mirage. Desert sand can reach 60–70°C even when the air a couple of meters up sits near 45°C, and that steep refractive-index gradient is what produces the shimmering heat haze: turbulent mixing of hot and cool air scattering light unevenly frame to frame.