#noctilucent — Public Fediverse posts

Anyone else in UK at around 51 degs north seeing this to the north west? It's VERY late for #Noctilucent ckouds but I can't think what else it could be.

Thoughts?

#astrophotography

A stunning display of Noctilucent clouds last night, at around midnight, here in the North East of Scotland #Scotland #Noctilucent

This (16th July) morning's NLC display. Quite bright, but in a rapidly-brightening sky. Eventually covered about half the entire sky by 02:45UT. This photo at 02:35UT, seen from Anglesey.

#NLC #noctilucent #cloud #weather #science #atmosphere #climate #astronomy

2026-07-08 NLCs ~ 0235hr ±10mins

Some nice structures and shapes. Particularly pleased with the roll of low cloud/mist along the A85 through Strathearn in the distance.

Your regular reminder that these brilliant electric-blue clouds are increasingly visible due to increasing methane/water vapour/ozone interactions in the upper atmosphere.

#NLC #noctilucent #cloud #night #nightsky #sky #NoctilucenClouds #perthshire #Strathearn #longexposure #photography #nature #climatechange

A decent noctilucent cloud display at 02:00UT this (July 08) morning. As seen from Anglesey. Apparent elevation 35 degrees, spanning about 130 degrees in azimuth. Brightness of 4 (of 5). About a month of the season left now.

#nlc #noctilucent #cloud #science #photography

And that was "Noctilucent Clouds over Bennachie and Donside earlier this morning at around 01:00 in the north east of Scotland" by the Strawberry Moon, also making an appearance Abba Dean, sire ...

#Aberdeenshire
#Scotland #Noctilucent #StrawberryMoon

#JohnPeelBandNames
#StuartMaconieBandNames

Noctilucent clouds over Bennachie and Donside earlier this morning at around 01:00 in the north east of Scotland. The Strawberry Moon also making an appearance #Aberdeenshire #Scotland #Noctilucent #StrawberryMoon

#1jour1souvenir
26 juin 2021,5h03 : Felfie, le #fantôme toujours prompt** à m'aider, tente d'éclairer davantage les rares nuages #noctulescents* de ce matin-là… mais je ne suis pas certain que le faisceau de sa torche soit encore efficace à 80 km d'altitude et sûrement encore plus en latitude et longitude.
https://finistere.en-photo.fr/montsdarree

* quelques explications supplémentaires de ce phénomène dans le ALT
** si Felfie est prompt à m'aider, il ne prompte pas. J'ai souri en lisant ensuite l'extrait de https://www.liberation.fr/economie/economie-numerique/le-lobby-des-centres-de-donnees-demande-a-lue-de-faire-passer-lia-avant-le-climat-en-pleine-canicule-on-setouffe-20260624_GMW6STLHFNBNRMJ4XNQ77LFFUY

#photography #nuit #night #fantome #ghost #nlc #noctulesent #noctilucent #noctiluque #Bretagne #Finistere

Jour 16 du #PhotoMai2026 #PhotoMay2026
Thème : Nuit

Hâte.... plus que quelques semaines à attendre pour espérer voir cette année des nuages noctulescents, noctiluques, brillant dans la nuit.
En 2025, les nuages habituels nous les ont cachés, ici ou alors quand je pense en avoir vus, ils étaient très très loin au nord, juste une bande claire à l'horizon.
Là c'était le 6/07/2022, depuis une crête de #Brasparts : vue sur Roc-Tredudon, le haut de l'antenne, le lac (voir aussi ma photo d'accueil, avec les menhirs d'Eured Vein en 1er plan)

#photography #night #noctilucent #Bretagne #Finistere #noctulescent #noctiluque #nuit

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

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

2020 July 13
Comet NEOWISE Rising over the Adriatic Sea
* Video Credit & Copyright: Paolo Girotti
https://www.instagram.com/astrogyres/

Explanation:
This sight was worth getting out of bed early. Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) has been rising before dawn during the past week to the delight of northern sky enthusiasts awake that early. Up before sunrise, the featured photographer was able to capture in dramatic fashion one of the few comets visible to the unaided eye this century, an inner-Solar System intruder that might become known as the Great Comet of 2020. The resulting video details Comet NEOWISE from Italy rising over the Adriatic Sea. The time-lapse video combines over 240 images taken over 30 minutes. The comet is seen rising through a foreground of bright and undulating noctilucent clouds, and before a background of distant stars. Comet NEOWISE has remained unexpectedly bright, so far, with its ion and dust tails found to emanate from a nucleus spanning about five kilometers across. Fortunately, starting tonight, northern observers with a clear and dark northwestern horizon should be able to see the sun-reflecting interplanetary snowball just after sunset.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200713.html

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

2020 July 9

Noctilucent Clouds and Comet NEOWISE
* Image Credit & Copyright: Emmanuel Paoly
https://www.flickr.com/photos/184931432@N04/with/50566410986

Explanation:
These silvery blue waves washing over a tree-lined horizon in the eastern French Alps are noctilucent clouds. From high in planet Earth's mesosphere, they reflect sunlight in this predawn skyscape taken on 2020 July 8. This summer, the night-shining clouds were not new to the northern high-latitudes. Comet NEOWISE is though. Also known as C/2020 F3, the comet was discovered in March by the Earth-orbiting Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) satellite. It's now emerging in morning twilight only just visible to the unaided eye from a clear location above the northeastern horizon.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200709.html

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

2021 June 19

Northern Summer Twilight
* Image Credit & Copyright: Justin Anderson

Explanation:
Nights grow shorter and days grow longer as the summer solstice approaches in the north. Usually seen at high latitudes in summer months, noctilucent or night shining clouds begin to make their appearance. Drifting near the edge of space about 80 kilometers above the Earth's surface, these icy clouds were still reflecting the sunlight on June 14. Though the Sun was below the horizon as seen north of Forrest, Manitoba, Canada, they were caught in a single exposure of a near midnight twilight sky. Multiple exposures of the foreground track the lower altitude flash of fireflies, another fleeting apparition shining in the summer night.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210619.html

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

2021 July 24

The Edge of Space
* Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner
https://www.instagram.com/skypointer2000/

Explanation:
Where does space begin? For purposes of spaceflight some would say at the Karman line, currently defined as an altitude of 100 kilometers (60 miles). Others might place a line 80 kilometers (50 miles) above Earth's mean sea level. But there is no sharp physical boundary that marks the end of atmosphere and the beginning of space. In fact, the Karman line itself is near the transition between the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Night shining or noctilucent clouds are high-latitude summer apparitions formed at altitudes near the top of the mesosphere, up to 80 kilometers or so, also known as polar mesospheric clouds. Auroral bands of the northern (and southern) lights caused by energetic particles exciting atoms in the thermosphere can extend above 80 kilometers to over 600 kilometers altitude. Taken from a cockpit while flying at an altitude of 10 kilometers (33,000 feet) in the realm of stratospheric aeronautics, this snapshot captures both noctilucent clouds and aurora borealis under a starry sky, looking toward planet Earth's horizon and the edge of space.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210724.html

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

2022 July 12

Noctilucent Clouds over Paris
* Credit & Copyright: Bertrand Kulik
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bertrandkulik/

Explanation:
It's northern noctilucent cloud season. Composed of small ice crystals forming only during specific conditions in the upper atmosphere, noctilucent clouds may become visible at sunset during late summer when illuminated by sunlight from below. Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds known and now established to be polar mesospheric clouds observed from the ground. Although observed with NASA's AIM satellite since 2007, much about noctilucent clouds remains unknown and so a topic of active research. The featured image shows expansive and rippled noctilucent clouds wafting over Paris, France. This year, several northern locations are already reporting especially vivid displays of noctilucent clouds.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220712.html

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

Timlaps of

Noctilucent Clouds over Florida
* Credit & Copyright: Pascal Fouquet
https://www.pfphotos.art/about/

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

Annotations for previous post.

Noctilucent Clouds over Florida
* Credit & Copyright: Pascal Fouquet
https://www.pfphotos.art/about/

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

2024 July 9

Noctilucent Clouds over Florida
* Credit & Copyright: Pascal Fouquet
https://www.pfphotos.art/about/

Explanation:
These clouds are doubly unusual. First, they are rare noctilucent clouds, meaning that they are visible at night -- but only just before sunrise or just after sunset. Second, the source of these noctilucent clouds is actually known. In this rare case, the source of the sunlight-reflecting ice-crystals in the upper atmosphere can be traced back to the launch of a nearby SpaceX rocket about 30 minutes earlier. Known more formally as polar mesospheric clouds, the vertex of these icy wisps happens to converge just in front of a rising crescent Moon. The featured image -- and accompanying video -- were captured over Orlando, Florida, USA about a week ago. The bright spot to the right of the Moon is the planet Jupiter, while the dotted lights above the horizon on the right are from an airplane.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240709.html

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

Noctilucent Clouds explained

Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs) are Earth's highest clouds, that float at the edge of space more than 82 km (50 miles) above the planet's surface. When viewed from space, the same atmospheric phenomenon is referred to as polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs). Noctilucent clouds appear during summer and are probably composed of tiny ice crystals and specks of meteor dust.

Noctilucent or night-shining clouds are rare, high-altitude clouds that glow with a blue silvery hue at dusk or dawn when the Sun shines on them from below the horizon. These ice clouds typically occur near the North and South Poles but are increasingly being reported at mid- and low latitudes. Observing them helps scientists better understand how human activities may affect our atmosphere.

Credits:
Science @ NASA science.nasa.gov
Semen Sh. - NLC 2015.06.23 Timelapse 4K
Noctilucent cloud (серебристые облака) over Bryansk, RU
SciNews

** Note by grobi:
"To upload this video, I converted it and compressed it to a smaller file-size under linux with the free software ffmpeg and the corresponding command:

'ffmpeg -i video_in.mkv -vcodec libx265 -crf 28 video_out.mp4'

Maybe you would like to post a corresponding video on a scientifically related topic, but it is perhaps too big? Then try ffmpeg."

#space #earth #atmosphere #noctilucent #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #education

2024 March 12

A Galaxy-Shaped Rocket Exhaust Spiral
* Credit & Copyright: Seung Hye Yang

Explanation:
What's that over the horizon? What may look like a strangely nearby galaxy is actually a normal rocket's exhaust plume -- but unusually backlit. Although the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA, its burned propellant was visible over a much wider area, with the featured photograph being taken from Akureyri, Iceland. The huge spaceship was lifted off a week ago, and the resulting spectacle was captured soon afterward with a single 10-second smartphone exposure, before it quickly dissipated. Like noctilucent clouds, the plume's brightness is caused by the Twilight Effect, where an object is high enough to be illuminated by the twilight Sun, even when the observer on the ground experiences the darkness of night. The spiral shape is caused by the Falcon rocket reorienting to release satellites in different directions. Stars and faint green and red aurora appear in the background of this extraordinary image.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240312.html

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