Abstract

It has been pointed out that the distance to the visible horizon is increased by atmospheric refraction (French, 1982). Indeed, it even has been asserted that given the right vertical variation of refractive index a ray of light would have the same curvature as the earth, and the horizon would move to infinity; with a sufficiently powerful telescope, one could look around the earth and see the back of one's head (Jones, 1982).

© 1986 Optical Society of America