The
Novaya Zemlya effect is a
polar mirage caused by high
refraction of
sunlight between atmospheric
thermoclines. The Novaya Zemlya effect will give the impression that the
sun is rising earlier than it actually should (astronomically speaking), and depending on the
meteorological situation, the effect will present the sun as a line or a square (which is sometimes referred to as the "rectangular sun"), made up of flattened hourglass shapes. The mirage requires rays of sunlight to have an
inversion layer for hundreds of kilometres (at least 400 km), and depends on the inversion layer's
temperature gradient. The sunlight must bend to the Earth's curvature at least 400 km to allow an elevation rise of 5 degrees for sight of the sun disk.