Noctilucent nirvana
Well you wait for noctilucent cloud season to start and then they appear three nights in a row! I missed Tuesday night’s display so here are some images (click them to enlarge) captured from Bristol from Wednesday (17th) night between 10:30 and 11:45 local time. The clouds last night were full of contrast and were tinged with the classic electric blue colour. An impressive sight looming over the horizon, like something from a movie. If the last few weeks of displays are anything to go by this is going to be a good summer for NLCs.
A wider angle looking at the whole display:
A shot with a zoom lens to reveal some of the fine detail in the clouds:
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A beautiful display Will. How much higher than normal clouds are they?
Thursday, 18 June, 2009 at 8:54 am
They are in a region roughly 80km up in the atmosphere. The average cirrus cloud forms at heights of around 8km upwards. So around ten times higher seems about right.
Thursday, 18 June, 2009 at 9:43 am
How can we discern noctilucent clouds from other blue-tinted clouds? Recently, I imaged a large display of mammatus clouds, and there were several very unusual-looking clouds just beneath them that appeared to “glow” a blue color.
Thursday, 18 June, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Hi Tavi,
NLCs appear an hour or so after sunset or before sunrise. As they emerge from the twilight they appear to glow by themselves very distinctly (with a bright white/blue colour) against the darker sky. Other ‘normal’ clouds will be silhouetted against the sky, and often the NLCs themselves, appearing much darker; as can be seen lower down in some of the images above. If the mammatus cloud image you are referring to is the lovely one on your blog post dated June 2nd then I don’t think they were NLCs, as it looks as if the Sun is either still just above the horizon or not far enough below it in that picture.
Hope this helps,
All the best,
Will
Thursday, 18 June, 2009 at 6:49 pm
is our location important to see this clouds? cause i’ve never noticed something like that in Istanbul.
Cemal
Saturday, 20 June, 2009 at 12:23 am
Hi Cemal,
Yes location is important. NLCs are typically visible between latitudes of 50 and 65 degrees north.
All the best,
Will
Wednesday, 24 June, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Approximately 1 month ago, at roughly 2:15 am eastern time, following a very rainy gray day, i happened to look outside and observe a gradual steady increase from a relatively totally dark night to seeing the sky light up to the point that trees were casting shadows and then gradually diminish back to darkness. This happened in the course of 5 or so minutes. Any insight as to what I may have witnessed?
Sunday, 20 September, 2009 at 6:34 pm