There has been some talk about so-called "atmospheric distortions", but as far as I can tell, no actual account of just what they are. I believe I can provide an account which explains a number of observed phenomena which supposedly refute FE. Namely, I show how atmospheric distortions can explain why the mast of a ship descends below the horizon after its hull, and why the sun, which is a disc, btw, appears circular even as it descends below the horizon.
Figure 1: curved sight-lines through the atmosphere
Figure 1 shows how light bends as it travels through the atmosphere. As the observer looks straight up or down, light travels straight, but as the angle at which the observer looks changes, the curvature changes correspondingly. The Horizon Line marked in the figure represents the lowest angle at which one can observe open sky, and anything that crosses that line (into the blind area), appears to "fall below" the horizon. The point marked by the top arrow is the point at which the sun appears to set. Note that the angle at which the sight lines meets the plane on which the sun orbits is orthogonal, and their distribution is uniform. These two features account for the fact that no matter where on the plane the sun may be, it appears circular.
Figure 2: a ship descends the horizon
Figure 2 shows how a ship falls below the horizon hull-first. Since as the ship gets farther away from shore, the hull is the first thing to cross the horizon line, it is the first thing that vanishes.