Noctilucent Clouds

Congratulations Martin on capturing these elusive clouds. I also thought about having a look to see if there were any about last night as viewing conditions appeared to be just right following such a clear sunset, but I afraid sleep also got the better of me. Its interesting that you thought you might have seen them last night Mike from Blackheath? Perhaps there is some chance of seeing them from the rarefied heights of Shooters Hill. Let's hope for some more clear evenings this month.

Hi Clive, I'm pretty certain that I saw them... certainly the sky to the north west had a ghostly white appearance... it wasn't light pollution, as this has a different appearance. It's true that you don't see noctilucent clouds at their best in urban areas, but it's certainly possible to view them.

I would have thought that you could see noctilucent clouds from the top of Shooters Hill. Remember, you'd need to be facing north-west after sunset, and the horizon needs to be relatively clear, as they will appear low down. Unfortunately, from Shooters Hill, you are looking directly over central London if you're looking north-west, but you should be able to see something if there is a display.

My brother flies 777s for Air Canada and took these photos of noctilucent clouds over the North Atlantic a year ago.

Wow, fabulous pictures, Andy.

Noctilucent clouds are puzzling things. I've been reading more about them this morning, and there is much that we simply don't know.

I hadn't realised that NASA had launched a satellite in 2007, the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission, simply to study Noctilucent Clouds. They don't seem to have come to any hard conclusions, except to say that these clouds seem to be increasing.

They also seem to have discovered "teleconnections" in the Earth's atmosphere, between the north and south poles.

Interesting stuff, but I'm not sure we're any closer to determining what causes these features, and why they seem to be increasing. They seem to have been first documented in 1885, after the exceptionally large eruption of Krakatau in 1883 that possibly would have put some moisture into the extreme heights of the stratosphere and beyond into the mesosphere, but this is only theory. It may just have been that people discovered them because they were more inclined to look at the spectacular sunsets that occurred as a result of this eruption.

Even more fascinating is that there appear to be similar features on Mars, albeit that the clouds are made out of Carbon Dioxide crystals rather than water ice. These clouds, like noctilucent clouds, can only be observed when the Sun is below the horizon.

Well, as if to prove my point about being able to view noctilucent clouds in London, I stumbled across the following video this morning, which is a timelapse of noctilucent clouds over London from last week.

Absolutely stunning...

http://vimeo.com/99905917

One of the frames from this video was the Astronomy Picture of the Day yesterday: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140710.html

Wow! What a beautiful video. It does indeed prove the point that when conditions are right it is possible to see and photograph noctilucent clouds even in London's the light polluted skies. It was interesting to see in the timelapse video how they move and evolve, and how long lived they appear to be.

Thanks for the post Mike. I'll keep a lookout on those northern horizons.

Spotted this NLC photo album on Facebook - it's from the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory near Dalmellington, southwest Scotland, and the photos were taken last night, I believe. I hope to be able to visit there soon.

Edit: I think the link is working now!

A couple more NLC shots from my brother at 37,000 feet. Note Venus!

A couple more NLC shots from my brother at 37,000 feet. Note Venus!

Superb images.

Lots of Noctilucent Cloud about last night apparently, but I didn't manage to see any.

Interesting the way you can see the Noctilucent Clouds moving in the opposite direction to the 'normal' clouds...

Interesting the way you can see the Noctilucent Clouds moving in the opposite direction to the ‘normal’ clouds…

Great spot! I hadn't really noticed that.

Doing some more investigation of this, it appears that noctilucent clouds, in the northern hemisphere, usually drift from the north-east to the south-west. If my orientation is correct on the above video, that seems to be what they are doing. Apparently, they can drift in other directions, but this is not frequent.

See here and here for details.

More stuff I didn't know before, thanks to the forum!

I spotted some from near my place in Surrey Quays in London - looking towards central London 🙂

Here:

IMG_4949.jpg by Sumitra_S, on Flickr

and

IMG_4952.jpg by Sumitra_S, on Flickr

Great images Sumitra. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Mike, forgot to say it was about 2 years ago ish...