Noctilucent Clouds

[Laurie61]

]For those of us who try and see, or photograph noctilucent clouds Spaceweather.com are now showing daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds. Hopefully this will be a good resource for helping to spot a display.

From Spaceweather.com –

NEW: Spaceweather.com is now posting daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Image from Spaceweather-

[Laurie61]

A noctilucent cloud display from July 2011, Canon G9 15sec exp 800iso

[Boltonian]

What exactly are noctilucent clouds?

I could Google it, but that's the lazy way

[Pete Presland]

Noctilucent means "glowing at night", They look a bit like streaks of cirrostratus. noctilucent clouds develop about 50 miles up, much higher than normal clouds.

[Boltonian]

Noctilucent means "glowing at night", They look a bit like streaks of cirrostratus. noctilucent clouds develop about 50 miles up, much higher than normal clouds.

50 miles? That's incredibly high. Thanks for the info

[Pete Presland]

]For those of us who try and see, or photograph noctilucent clouds Spaceweather.com are now showing daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds. Hopefully this will be a good resource for helping to spot a display.

From Spaceweather.com –

NEW: Spaceweather.com is now posting daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LAS

thanks for link!

[Paul M]

I've seen some great noctilucent clouds from our weekend retreat here in Cumbria. Slightly elevated northward view over the Eden Valley towards the north.

Last year there was a display so bright that it was like twilight through the bedroom curtains at 2am.

I'll take some pictures one of these days. Sadly not tonight though. Perfect conditions but no noctilucents!!

[Boltonian]

I'm amazed that clouds can form so high in the atmosphere

I thought that gravity restricted the height of clouds. Seems I was wrong

There's more to this astronomy lark than meets the eye....

[Ptarmigan]

Spaceweather.com are now showing daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds.

Thanks for the headsup, well spotted !

I've only caught (and photographed) one NLC display from down here in Somerset, with a bit of luck this will improve my future chances.

[Andy_E]

Thanks for the heads up

[Laurie61]

Looking for NCL's during June/July does partially compensate for a short night. Another link monitoring atmospheric conditions over

the UK. http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/~hcp/meso_ts/