{"id":86950,"date":"2025-06-01T04:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T04:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/?p=86950"},"modified":"2025-06-01T04:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T04:24:11","slug":"on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"On a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground."},"content":{"rendered":"

On a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground. It is due to<\/p>\n

[amp_mcq option1=”dispersion of light” option2=”refraction of light” option3=”reflection of light” option4=”total internal reflection of light” correct=”option2″]<\/p>\n

\n
\n
This question was previously asked in<\/div>\n
UPSC Geoscientist – 2022<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Download PDF<\/a>Attempt Online<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe shimmering wavy lines observed near the ground on a hot day are caused by the refraction of light as it passes through layers of air with varying temperatures and densities, leading to variations in the refractive index.
\n<\/section>\n
\nOn hot days, the ground heats the air just above it, creating a significant temperature gradient. Hot air is less dense than cooler air and has a slightly lower refractive index. Light rays passing through these layers of air with different refractive indices are continuously bent (refracted). As convection causes these pockets of hot and cool air to move and mix, the light rays are constantly being bent in different directions, making distant objects appear distorted, blurred, and wavy or shimmering. This is a form of atmospheric refraction.
\n<\/section>\n
\nThis phenomenon is closely related to the formation of mirages, which are more pronounced examples of atmospheric refraction occurring when light is strongly bent as it passes from cooler, denser air into warmer, less dense air near a hot surface. The shimmering effect is a less extreme, constantly changing manifestation of the same principle of refraction due to thermal gradients in the atmosphere.
\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground. It is due to [amp_mcq option1=”dispersion of light” option2=”refraction of light” option3=”reflection of light” option4=”total internal reflection of light” correct=”option2″] This question was previously asked in UPSC Geoscientist – 2022 Download PDFAttempt Online The shimmering wavy lines observed near the ground … <\/p>\n

Detailed SolutionOn a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1091],"tags":[1108,1153,1128],"class_list":["post-86950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upsc-geoscientist","tag-1108","tag-optics","tag-physics","no-featured-image-padding"],"yoast_head":"\nOn a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The shimmering wavy lines observed near the ground on a hot day are caused by the refraction of light as it passes through layers of air with varying temperatures and densities, leading to variations in the refractive index. On hot days, the ground heats the air just above it, creating a significant temperature gradient. Hot air is less dense than cooler air and has a slightly lower refractive index. Light rays passing through these layers of air with different refractive indices are continuously bent (refracted). As convection causes these pockets of hot and cool air to move and mix, the light rays are constantly being bent in different directions, making distant objects appear distorted, blurred, and wavy or shimmering. This is a form of atmospheric refraction.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The shimmering wavy lines observed near the ground on a hot day are caused by the refraction of light as it passes through layers of air with varying temperatures and densities, leading to variations in the refractive index. On hot days, the ground heats the air just above it, creating a significant temperature gradient. Hot air is less dense than cooler air and has a slightly lower refractive index. Light rays passing through these layers of air with different refractive indices are continuously bent (refracted). As convection causes these pockets of hot and cool air to move and mix, the light rays are constantly being bent in different directions, making distant objects appear distorted, blurred, and wavy or shimmering. This is a form of atmospheric refraction.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MCQ and Quiz for Exams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-01T04:24:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rawan239\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rawan239\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground.","description":"The shimmering wavy lines observed near the ground on a hot day are caused by the refraction of light as it passes through layers of air with varying temperatures and densities, leading to variations in the refractive index. On hot days, the ground heats the air just above it, creating a significant temperature gradient. Hot air is less dense than cooler air and has a slightly lower refractive index. Light rays passing through these layers of air with different refractive indices are continuously bent (refracted). As convection causes these pockets of hot and cool air to move and mix, the light rays are constantly being bent in different directions, making distant objects appear distorted, blurred, and wavy or shimmering. This is a form of atmospheric refraction.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground.","og_description":"The shimmering wavy lines observed near the ground on a hot day are caused by the refraction of light as it passes through layers of air with varying temperatures and densities, leading to variations in the refractive index. On hot days, the ground heats the air just above it, creating a significant temperature gradient. Hot air is less dense than cooler air and has a slightly lower refractive index. Light rays passing through these layers of air with different refractive indices are continuously bent (refracted). As convection causes these pockets of hot and cool air to move and mix, the light rays are constantly being bent in different directions, making distant objects appear distorted, blurred, and wavy or shimmering. This is a form of atmospheric refraction.","og_url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/","og_site_name":"MCQ and Quiz for Exams","article_published_time":"2025-06-01T04:24:11+00:00","author":"rawan239","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rawan239","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/","url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/","name":"On a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-01T04:24:11+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-01T04:24:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/5807dafeb27d2ec82344d6cbd6c3d209"},"description":"The shimmering wavy lines observed near the ground on a hot day are caused by the refraction of light as it passes through layers of air with varying temperatures and densities, leading to variations in the refractive index. On hot days, the ground heats the air just above it, creating a significant temperature gradient. Hot air is less dense than cooler air and has a slightly lower refractive index. Light rays passing through these layers of air with different refractive indices are continuously bent (refracted). As convection causes these pockets of hot and cool air to move and mix, the light rays are constantly being bent in different directions, making distant objects appear distorted, blurred, and wavy or shimmering. This is a form of atmospheric refraction.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/on-a-very-hot-day-we-often-see-shimmering-wavy-lines-near-the-ground\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UPSC Geoscientist","item":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/category\/upsc-geoscientist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"On a very hot day, we often see shimmering wavy lines near the ground."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#website","url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/","name":"MCQ and Quiz for Exams","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/5807dafeb27d2ec82344d6cbd6c3d209","name":"rawan239","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/761a7274f9cce048fa5b921221e7934820d74514df93ef195a9d22af0c1c9001?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/761a7274f9cce048fa5b921221e7934820d74514df93ef195a9d22af0c1c9001?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"rawan239"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com"],"url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/author\/rawan239\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}