ARCTIC MIRAGE

     The only land features visible anywhere around here are the Nulato hills far off to our east and southeast.  The other day however when I looked to the south there had sprung up immense skyscrapers, wide flat plateaus and buttes.  Even an enormous pagoda with it's characteristic flared roof line.  It was incredible!  Miles away on the horizon an entire city had sprung up literally overnight.  I was out on the tundra with Hobart so I let him wander and I sat and watched.  It was mesmorizing to watch the building slowly shift and morph, becoming wider, then taller then fading away entirely.
    What I was looking at is an arctic mirage, also called a superior mirage or fata morgana.  Density differences between cold air and warmer air are the cause of this phenomenon.  As you look toward the horizon you are actualy seeing objects and land that are below the horizon from your perspective.  Google pictures of this and you will find some good ones.  I didn't have my camera that day so I didn't get any.  They would not have done it justice anyway. 

Here's a link to this and other arctic phenomenon
https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/phenomena.html

And then of course there is Wikipedia which has some good articles on the subject.
Also look up Croker Land.  It's an interesting story about how an expedition went looking for a land that was really a mirage.