Caused by light refraction in the atmosphere?

Answer 1

Mirage is a good example which is seen due to refraction of light and especially due to total internal reflection.

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A semi-opposing opinion:

No reflection is required for the creation of a mirage, only refraction.

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Hope you might have heard about the conditions for total internal relection to take place.

1) Ray has to traverse from denser to rarer

2) the angle of incidence is to be more than critical angle of the denser medium

So in such a case the refraction phenomenon cannot take place and so all the energy to be refracted is sent back to the denser medium itself. Hence named as total internal reflection.

Of course total internal reflection is totally different from ordinary reflection.

Answer 2

A mirage is an optical illusion caused by the bending of light rays as they pass through air layers of different temperatures, which creates distorted or inverted images of distant objects. This bending of light, known as refraction, can make objects appear closer, taller, or even as if they are floating in the air.