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How is mirage related to refraction?
A mirage is an optical phenomenon that creates the illusion of water layer at short distances in a desert or on the road and most commonly observed on sunny days when driving down a roadway.
It is caused due to "Total Internal Reflection of Light" which occurs due to atmospheric refraction.
Explanation
When there are two separate air masses with different indices of refraction, and the light goes from a more optically denser medium to a less optically denser medium, the angle of incidence increases and approaches to a certain limit of angle, called the critical angle, the angle of refraction approaches 90°, at which the refracted ray becomes parallel to the surface (not refracted to the second layer), then the light will only be reflected but not refracted.
Now, when the angle of incidence increases beyond the critical angle (∠>90°), the conditions of refraction can no longer be satisfied; so there is no refracted ray, as the total light is reflected back into the same medium from where it came, and the light experiences total internal reflection.
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