Above and Beyond: Noctilucent Clouds Above Northern Europe

All programs produced by: Space Telescope Science Institute, Office of Public Outreach

 

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA

 

except:

 

·       Cloud illustrations by Marc Lussier, STScI

·       Sea creature illustration copyright The National Library of Israel, Shapell Family Digitization Project and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, _Department of Geography – Historic Cities Research Project

·       Various cloud photos courtesy of Marc Lussier

·       Valley fog photo courtesy of Lucy Albert

·       Clouds time-lapse video courtesy of Ethan Alexander Cook

·       Photo of cumulus clouds over field courtesy of PiccoloNamek, Wikipedia

·       Towering cumulus cloud photo courtesy of Jim W. Lee

·       Noctilucent cloud photo copyright Jan Erik Paulsen 

·       Noctilucent cloud photo courtesy of P-M Hedén, www.clearskies.se, www.twanight.org

 

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

 

Written by Andrea Gianopoulos

Designed by Marc Lussier

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, Noctilucent Clouds, Northern Europe. A rare phenomenon, noctilucent or "night-shining" clouds appear only in the summertime.

 

(SPEECH)

[GENTLE MUSIC]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

They are made of water-ice crystals that probably formed on meteoric dust.

 

They look like cirrus clouds, but they form at much higher altitudes and only a very cold temperatures.

 

They are so high up that the Sun can still illuminate them even after it has set.

 

Noctilucent Clouds, Antarctica, December 2009, NASA AIM Satellite Image. Since its launch in 2007, NASA's AIM satellite has discovered that the number of noctilucent clouds has increased over the Arctic and Antarctic.

 

Noctilucent Clouds, Northern Europe. Because they are so sensitive to temperatures in the atmosphere, noctilucent clouds can provide information about the temperature and other characteristics in their lofty region of the atmosphere.