false horizon
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false horizon
[¦fȯls hə′riz·ən] (navigation)
A line resembling the visible horizon but above or below it.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
false horizon
A visual illusion that occurs when flying between two cloud layers that are not horizontal when there is no natural horizon. In this case, there is a tendency to use a cloud base or the cloud top as the horizon and fly with a corresponding bank. Other conditions conducive to causing this illusion are sloping cloud formations, an obscured horizon, a dark spread with ground lights and stars, and certain geometric patterns of ground lights.
An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved