Fireworks aren’t the only show in the sky this month -- Read and share our stories!
Photo by iStockphoto.com/Juhku |
June and July are noctilucent cloud season, and June has already proven to be record-breaking this year. Noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds are high up in the mesosphere and shine by the light of the sun when it has already set below the horizon. The sun’s rays still reach into the highest edges of the atmosphere to light objects there. This is also how we can see satellites, with sunlight shining off them up in space even when it’s grown dark from our perspective on Earth. Keep an eye out after dusk or before dawn to catch these ethereal, wispy, electric-blue clouds 50 miles above. Sometimes wavy or rippled noctilucent clouds give observers the feeling that they’re underwater looking up at the surface of the sea. This rare phenomenon was only first recorded in 1885 but has become a bit more common in recent years. On June 8, observers in Wisconsin reported seeing the clouds, and then on June 14 they were spotted as far south as Los Angeles. |
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