Mirage
While the aurora seems to work wonders, mirage and related phenomena, commonly found in the polar region, may lead to a visit to a psychiatrist. Transparent, clean arctic air makes, that distant objects appear beyond the focus. As a result, depth perception becomes impossible, and the world takes on a strange two-dimensional aspect, where the distance cannot be determined. An amusing example of distance distortion is described in the mysterious book Polar Dreams by Barry Lopez:
The Swedish explorer has almost finished describing the steep hill in his notebook, with two extremely symmetrical valley glaciers, which formed part of a large island, when he suddenly realized, that he is looking at the walrus.
Mirage, a special kind of mirage, can often be seen in large desert areas, icy and in the arctic tundra. They are caused by mirror reflections in the water surface, ice or snow, which, combined with the temperature inversion, leads to the illusion of an image of constants, clear objects, which are not actually there, where an observer would expect them. Early explorers carefully mapped the documentation of the islands, hills and mountain ranges, never seen again. On clear days, on the outermost parts of the Lofoten coast, the islands of Vesteralen, North Finn-Mark and Svalbard you can see the mountains of non-existent archipelagos, consisting of rocky islands situated on the horizon. It's hard to convince yourself, even if you have an accurate map, that they are not really there!
The views of the ships are also unreal, big cities and forests – appearing in places, where they are definitely not. Normal visibility at sea is up to 18 km, but in the Arctic Sea it is common for astonished eyes to see islands and other objects hundreds of kilometers away.