AGU: Climate change is making night-shining clouds more visible

2 July 2018

WASHINGTON — Increased water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere due to human activities is making shimmering high-altitude clouds more visible, a new study finds. The results suggest these strange but increasingly common clouds seen only on summer nights are an indicator of human-caused climate change, according to the study’s authors.

https://news.agu.org/press-release/climate-change-is-making-night-shining-clouds-more-visible/

#clouds #noctilucent

Noctilucence Even On Mars!

2021 June 5

The Shining Clouds of Mars
* Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS
https://www.nasa.gov/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
https://www.msss.com/

Explanation:
The weathered and layered face of Mount Mercou looms in the foreground of this mosaic from the Curiosity Mars rover's Mast Camera. Made up of 21 individual images the scene was recorded just after sunset on March 19, the 3,063rd martian day of Curiosity's on going exploration of the Red Planet. In the martian twilight high altitude clouds still shine above, reflecting the light from the Sun below the local horizon like the noctilucent clouds of planet Earth. Though water ice clouds drift through the thin martian atmosphere, these wispy clouds are also at extreme altitudes and could be composed of frozen carbon dioxide, crystals of dry ice. Curiosity's Mast Cam has also imaged iridescent or mother of pearl clouds adding subtle colors to the martian sky.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210605.ht

#space #mars #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2016 July 30

Ripples Through a Dark Sky
* Image Credit & Copyright: P-M Hedén (Clear Skies, TWAN)
https://www.clearskies.se/
https://twanight.org/

Explanation:
Sunlight ripples through a dark sky on this Swedish summer midnight as noctilucent or night shining clouds seem to imitate the river below. In fact, the seasonal clouds often appear at high latitudes in corresponding summer months. Also known as polar mesospheric clouds, they form as water vapor is driven into the cold upper atmosphere. Fine dust supplied by disintegrating meteors or volcanic ash provides sites where water vapor can condense, turning to ice at the cold temperatures in the mesosphere. Poised at the edge of space some 80 kilometers above, these icy clouds really do reflect sunlight toward the ground. They are visible here even though the Sun itself was below the horizon, as seen on July 16 from Sweden's Färnebofjärdens National Park.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160730.html

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2016 August 11

Perseid, Aurora, and Noctilucent Clouds
* Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand
https://astrofotografen.se/

Explanation:
Night skies over northern Sweden can hold some tantalizing sights in August. Gazing toward the Big Dipper, this beautiful skyscape captures three of them in a single frame taken last August 12/13. Though receding from northern skies for the season, night shining or noctilucent clouds are hanging just above the horizon. Extreme altitude icy condensations on meteoric dust, they were caught here just below an early apparition of a lovely green auroral band, also shining near the edge of space. The flash of a Perseid meteor near the peak of the annual shower punctuates the scene. In fact, this year's Perseid shower will peak in the coming days, offering a continuing chance for a night sky photographer's hat trick.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160811.html

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2017 June 23

Solstice Conjunction over Budapest
* Image Credit & Copyright: György Soponyai
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanamonde81/

Explanation:
Before a solstice Sun rose on June 21, brilliant Venus and an old crescent Moon posed together over Budapest, Hungary for this predawn skyscape. In the foreground the view looks across the Danube river from Buda to Pest toward the dome and peaks of the Hungarian Parliament building. Low clouds are in silhouette against a twilight sky. But far enough above the eastern horizon to catch the sunlight shines another seasonal apparition on that solstice morning, noctilucent clouds. Seen near sunrise and sunset in summer months at high latitudes, the night-shining clouds are formed as water vapor in the cold upper atmosphere condenses on meteoric dust or volcanic ash near the edge of space.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170623.html

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2018 June 21

Northern Lights and Noctilucent Clouds
* Image Credit & Copyright: Adrien Mauduit

Explanation:
Luminous skies after the near-solstice sunset on June 17 are reflected in this calm lake. The tranquil twilight scene was captured near Bashaw, Alberta, Canada, northern planet Earth. Usually spotted at high latitudes in summer months, night shining or noctilucent clouds hang just above the horizon, transfusing light into a darker sky. Formed near the edge of space, the icy apparitions are condensations on meteoric dust or volcanic ash still in sunlight at extreme altitudes. Also near the edge of space on this short northern night, solar activity triggered the lovely apparition of aurora borealis or northern lights.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180621.html

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2018 July 10

Noctilucent Clouds over Paris Fireworks
* Video Credit & Copyright: Jean-Luc Dauvergne (Ciel et Espace)
https://www.cieletespace.fr/

Explanation:
The featured time-lapse video shows expansive and rippled noctilucent clouds wafting over Paris, France, during a post-sunset fireworks celebration on Bastille Day in 2009 July. In that year, several locations have reported especially vivid displays of noctilucent clouds.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180710.html

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2019 June 26

Noctilucent Clouds, Reflections, and Silhouettes
* Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Simmering

Explanation:
Sometimes it's night on the ground but day in the air. As the Earth rotates to eclipse the Sun, sunset rises up from the ground. Therefore, at sunset on the ground, sunlight still shines on clouds above. Under usual circumstances, a pretty sunset might be visible, but unusual noctilucent clouds float so high up they can be seen well after dark. Normally too dim to be seen, they may become visible just after sunset during the summer when illuminated by sunlight from below. Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds known and thought to be part of polar mesospheric clouds. Featured here as they appeared two weeks ago, a network of noctilucent clouds was captured not only in the distant sky but in reflection from a small lake just north of Zwolle, Netherlands, with trees in stark silhouette across the horizon. Unusually bright noctilucent clouds continue to appear over much of northern Europe. Much about noctilucent clouds has been discovered only over the past decade, while how they form and evolve remains a topic of active research.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190626.html

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2019 June 28

A Solstice Night in Paris
* Image Credit & Copyright: Loic Michel

Explanation:
The night of June 21 was the shortest night for planet Earth's northern latitudes, so at latitude 48.9 degrees north, Paris was no exception. Still, the City of Light had an exceptionally luminous evening. Its skies were flooded with silvery night shining or noctilucent clouds after the solstice sunset. Hovering at the edge of space, the icy condensations on meteoric dust or volcanic ash are still in full sunlight at the extreme altitudes of the mesophere. Seen at high latitudes in summer months, stunning, wide spread displays of northern noctilucent clouds are now being reported.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190628.html

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2020 July 4

Meeting in the Mesosphere
* Image Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter (TWAN, Nuits sacrees)
http://www.nuitsacrees.fr/

Explanation:
A sensitive video camera on a summit of the Vosges mountains in France captured these surprising fireworks above a distant horizon on 2020 June 26. Generated over intense thunderstorms, this one about 260 kilometers away, the brief and mysterious flashes have come to be known as red sprites. The transient luminous events are caused by electrical breakdown at altitudes of 50 to 100 kilometers. That puts them in the mesophere, the coldest layer of planet Earth's atmosphere. The glow beneath the sprites is from more familiar lighting though, below the storm clouds. But on the right, the video frames have captured another summertime apparition from the mesophere. The silvery veins of light are polar mesospheric clouds. Also known as noctilucent or night shining clouds, the icy clouds still reflect the sunlight when the Sun is below the horizon.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200704.html

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA