Omega Sunrise in Caspian Sea

Sunrise above waters of the Caspian Sea, from a shoreline in Nowshahr, Iran. The strange shape of the sun, known as Omega Sun, is an atmospheric phenomena in the category of sun mirages. As described by Atmospheric Optics the lower sun is not a reflection from the water. It is an ‘inferior mirage’, so named not from any poverty in appearance but because the miraged sun is below the ‘real’ one. The lower sun is an inverted image produced by refraction by a layer of warmer and less dense air close to the ocean surface.