Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Noctilucent clouds...

are a strange phenomena and only observable at high latitudes, and only during the summer.

They occur inside Earth's atmosphere at the edge of space, in a layer called the mesosphere, ranging from 50 to 85 km high. The mesosphere is very cold (-125 C) and also very dry, but the clouds consist of tiny water ice crystals about the size of particles in cigarette smoke. Here's a gallery of images of noctilucent clouds captured in 2009.

I'm hoping to see/photograph some during my upcoming Arctic adventure. Stay tuned.

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