The Toboggan Sun

Special variants of the Novaya Zemlya effect may arise from localized temperature inversions that follow the height profile of hills or mountains. Rather than following its natural path, the rising or setting Sun may, under such circumstances, appear to slide along a distant mountain slope. We found early observations of this effect in the literature by Willem Barents (1597) and by Captain Scott and H. G. Ponting (1911). We show recent photographic material of the effect and present ray-tracing calculations to explain its essentials.