A summary of noctilucent clouds. They can be seen from the northern latitudes during the summer months. Noctilucent cloud - Wikipedia
Noctilucent clouds outburst reported Posted by TW on July 04, 2014 in categories Clouds Noctilucent clouds outburst reported excerpt: "Night clouds or noctilucent clouds are tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the "ragged edge" of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice. Noctilucent roughly means night shining in Latin. They are most commonly observed in the summer months at latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the equator. They can only be observed when the Sun is below the horizon. They are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometres (47 to 53 mi). They are normally too faint to be seen, and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth's shadow. Noctilucent clouds are not fully understood and are a recently discovered meteorological phenomenon; there is no record of their observation before 1885."
The sweet spot for viewing is in the region of 50 to 65 deg N latitude. Noctilucent clouds don't appear often at latitudes below 50 deg. Above 65 deg N, the sun doesn't set sufficiently below the hotizon during the summer months when the clouds occur, which precludes the post-sunset lighting conditions needed to view them optimally.
Noctilucent clouds were formally sighted for the first time in Colorado and Utah in the 1990's. They are most likely to appear during the warm weather months from May through August post-sunset or pre-sunrise. Noctilucent Ice Clouds Spotted Over Colorado For First Time Published: June 23, 1999 Noctilucent Ice Clouds Spotted Over Colorado For First Time From the article: "Thomas, one of the worlds leading experts on noctilucent clouds, predicted in 1994 that the clouds would brighten by five to ten times and be visible over the continental United States by the 21st century. "This is a big event," he said. "While they are a beautiful phenomenon, these clouds may be a message from Mother Nature that we are upsetting the equilibrium of the atmosphere." The clouds, which bask in the late sunlight some 50 miles over Earths surface, were observed on June 22 at about 9:30 p.m. by CU-Boulder meteorology Instructor Richard Keen while driving up Coal Creek Canyon southwest of Boulder. They also were spotted that evening by Utah State University physics Professor Mike Taylor from his home in Logan, Utah. "I saw silvery clouds to the northwest that were distinctly brighter and higher than the other clouds," said Keen. The previous record for the southernmost sighting of these clouds in the continental United States was in North Dakota, some 500 miles to the north, said Keen. Noctilucent cloud formation is likely hastened by increasing amounts of rising carbon dioxide from Earth. While CO2 is thought to contribute to global warming in the lower atmosphere, it ironically cools the middle and upper atmospheres, helping to facilitate noctilucent cloud formation."
pdf download of noctilucent cloud description and photos https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Noctilucent Clouds.pdf Photo by Alister Ling.
Aurora are captivating. Photo by Alister Ling showing what appears to be noctilucent clouds near the horizon and aurora at higher elevation.
Do you guys ever look at clouds and see objects? Apparently there's a name for it and not everyone can do that. I can. I also, well I havent done this in years and years but when I was growing up lay on the grass with my hand in the sky and it just looked so not real. It always looked like a picture to me, like a backdrop or a paint lol, but take my hand away again and I couldn't see that. It was probably an illusion anyway. I like clouds.
Noctilucent Clouds Get an Early Start June 7, 2013 Noctilucent Clouds Get an Early Start | Science Mission Directorate From the article: "Back in the 19th century, NLCs were confined to high latitudes. You had to go to Alaska or Scandinavia to see them. In recent years, however, they have been sighted as far south as Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. Some researchers believe that the spread of NLCs is a sign of climate change. One of the greenhouse gases that has become more abundant in Earth's atmosphere since the 19th century is methane. "When methane makes its way into the upper atmosphere, it is oxidized by a complex series of reactions to form water vapor," says Russell. "This extra water vapor is then available to grow ice crystals for NLCs." The early start of the 2013 season appears to be caused by a change in atmospheric “teleconnections.” “Half-a-world away from where the northern NLCs are forming, strong winds in the southern stratosphere are altering global circulation patterns,” explains Randall. "This year more water vapor is being pushed into the high atmosphere where NLCs love to form, and the air there is getting colder." "All of this has come as an interesting surprise for us," notes Russell. "When we launched AIM, our interest was in the clouds themselves. But now NLCs are teaching us about connections between different layers of the atmosphere that operate over great distances. Our ability to study these connections will surely lead to new understanding about how our atmosphere works.""
