Implementation of a method of curved ray tracing for inhomogeneous atmospheres

In this paper, we describe a method of curved ray tracing for depicting various phenomena which may arise, under certain conditions, when light propagates through an inhomogeneous atmosphere. As example applications, the method of curved ray tracing will be applied to the phenomena of the distortion of the line of horizon, road mirages, sunsets and distortion of images caused by fire. Even though the scenes used are simple, the method is general and can be applied to any media in which the index of refraction is a function of the position.