Once when I was standing on the summit of a mountain on a sunny, clear day in the PNW I witnessed an astounding sight: two mountain peaks “stacked” on top of each other on the horizon, like a glitchy sprite in a video game. I thought I was hallucinating, it was insane. The “top” peak would move, warp, and distort as you walked towards lower elevation.
I found out later this is a rare mirage that occurs when a thermal inversion causes light on the horizon to bend.[0]
if this occurred at night and those mountain peaks were replaced with something like car head lights, I may have walked off that mountain as a UFO believer. I’m not saying this explains away all the UFO sightings. Only suggesting that there could be a lot rational, yet obscure, explanations that haven’t been considered.
I found out later this is a rare mirage that occurs when a thermal inversion causes light on the horizon to bend.[0]
if this occurred at night and those mountain peaks were replaced with something like car head lights, I may have walked off that mountain as a UFO believer. I’m not saying this explains away all the UFO sightings. Only suggesting that there could be a lot rational, yet obscure, explanations that haven’t been considered.
[0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)