Are Mysterious "Night-Shining" Clouds a Sign of Climate Change?
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07. 1.07
A strange, previously unknown breed of cloud, dubbed "night-shining" or "noctilucent" because of its glowing appearance, was observed in late May for the first time in the polar regions by a new NASA satellite, the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere satellite. The clouds appear to be moving, but scientists so far know little about their origin and significance.
"It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means," said atmospheric scientist James Russell III of Hampton University. "These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed."
What is known is that these "noctilucent" clouds typically form in an upper layer of the atmosphere known as the mesosphere, and that they appear both during the summer above the Northern Hemisphere's pole and the Southern Hemisphere's pole. The satellite will be used to record two cloud seasons over both poles.
Scientists hope that further observations will shed light on the shiny clouds' origin and their potential relation to global climate change, if any.
Via ::MSNBC: Mysterious clouds spray sky with light (news website), ::3 Quarks Daily
See also: ::Most Huggable: A Black Cloud in China, Green Cleaning for Dummies, and Ontario Banning the Bulb, ::Climate Destruction By Proxy: Escaping The Cloud-Shadow, ::Cloud Lovers Have a Home, ::How Now, Brown Cloud?
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"A strange, previously unknown breed of cloud, dubbed "night-shining" or "noctilucent" because of its glowing appearance,"
I'm not sure what "previously unknown" means in this context, since I first heard of noctilucent clouds over 15 years ago. If there is an increase in their frequency and range, though, it could indeed be a sign of some sort of change in the atmosphere above the tropopause, which is worrying.
i have seen those before. But i didn't think they had anything specific to do with the cloud. I just assumed it was the way the light was shinning.
More photos and information can be found on this great site: http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org
The president has also done write-ups on these clouds for newspapers.
Cheers!
I've seen one of these over san diego about a year ago, not a big one, but I had no clue what it was at the time.