ScienceCasts: An Early Start for Noctilucent Clouds

Glowing electric-blue at the edge of space, noctilucent clouds have surprised researchers by appearing early this year. The unexpected apparition hints at a change in the "teleconnections" of Earth's atmosphere.

[SpaceWeatherNewsSs]

Forgive me, but was that a nod FOR weather modification?

[Guilysh]

Is there any chance that these clouds are being formed as a mechanism of defense against the solar waves?
Do these clouds alter the temperature in a significant scale?
Can we somehow manipulate them?

[SapaHollidaySaparonia]

Satellites orbit doesn't include that area on it's camera range?

[YeshuaAgapao]

Doesn't water vapor tend to get disassociated when it gets above the ozone layer and heavier doses of ultraviolet hits it?

[ProcsProcs]

Nice to see Stockholm sky at 3:56 ;)
That short movie-clip is actually from my father (Jacek Stegman) work...

[SapaHollidaySaparonia]

"Noctilucent clouds were first detected from space by an instrument on the OGO-6 satellite in 1972" from wikipedia, also "Noctilucent clouds are first known to have been observed in 1885, two years after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa"
"The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission, on 13 September 1959"
They are a recent phenomenon, maybe seen in the 1880's-1920's but first mapped in 1970's. On spaceweather pages mapped only from May 25 2013

[IstasPumaNevada]

I think that's just due to layers of air moving past each other, which can happen at any altitude.

[libraryquiet]

They were first "noticed" back then. NLC's have been around probably as long as the earth's had an atmosphere.

[watsisname]

"where did the water come from that time?"
Water in the mesosphere does not only come from rocket exhaust. It can from from chemical reactions involving methane and hydroxyl, or be brought up by various atmospheric transport mechanisms.

[Gizmodi]

I saw some clouds that I haven't seen before much higher than sirrus (however its spelled) in north Texas. Never seen anything like that hear in my 33 yrs.

[Craziejane]

You have that right! Glad there is someone else who "gets it". :)

[sagemoonstone]

If the stripe zebra pattern is one of their sign posts, we saw some in California last night.

[SapaHollidaySaparonia]

If the first sighting of them was in 1885 and it was caused by a volcano, Krakatoa, then where did the water come from that time? There was no exhaust of water vapour ffrom the Space Shuttle in 1885.
The wafting up of water vapour should have been there during other volcanoes and forest fires and methane but the noctilucents weren't there until 137 years ago

[angelpbj]

I bet the waning magnetic field of Earth is related with the increase in NLC's because it'd allow more dust from outer space to get inside the atmosphere. Could the recently observed drying of the troposphere be in part due to transfer of water to higher altitudes?
We also know that the stratosphere has been cooling for many years, therefore it's more favorable environment for condensation of water into ice, faster.

[ARsuffix]

Theory:

These beautiful mysterious luminescent phenomena known as noctilucent clouds look an awful lot like the surface of water viewed from beneath. Do they not?

Water, like our atmosphere, is almost entirely transparent. When submerged in water, it's only do to light refracted by the turbulent curvatures of a distinct boundary can we make out it's surface.  Lay beneath a perfectly still body of water and the surface would appear indistinct, undefined, invisible. Again, very much like looking up through our vast atmosphere.

So.. could it be that noctilucent clouds are essentially the very surface boundary of our outermost mesosphere? Something that was always there - but do to an increase of light-refracting particulates suspended throughout, combined with some kind of stratospheric turbulences, the surface edg is becoming increasingly delineated. Does this make sense? 


Is this a sound theory? Yes?  No?
I am not a scientist, I just don't know..

[watsisname]

"I bet the waning magnetic field of Earth is related with the increase in NLC's because [etc]"
No, the Earth's magnetic field has no influence on the amount of meteors coming in.

"Could the recently observed drying of the troposphere be in part due to transfer of water to higher altitudes?"
Huh? What drying of the troposphere?

"We also know that the stratosphere has been cooling for many years"
Did you mean mesosphere (that's where NLC's form)? The stratosphere is indeed cooling, too.

[vintageozarks]

Possibly NLCs are caused by the fine debris from ChemTrail spraying.

[Pashao]

Tranquilo amigo, es facil irritarse pero es lo que quiere. Yo creo que esto es ciencia y cultura al alcance de todos, y eso es muy bueno.

[SapaHollidaySaparonia]

I wonder if they say that when testing nuclear weapons?

[nyhub]

Is it due to the meteor shower we are expecting in the next couple of weeks?