Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), or
night shining clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere. When viewed from space, they are called
polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs), detectable as a diffuse scattering layer of water ice crystals near the summer polar mesopause. They consist of ice crystals up to 100 nm in diameter and from the ground are only visible during astronomical twilight.
Noctilucent roughly means "night shining" in Latin. They are most often observed during the summer months from latitudes between ±50° and ±70°. Too faint to be seen in daylight, they are visible only when the observer and the lower layers of the atmosphere are in Earth's shadow while these very high clouds (76-85km) are still in sunlight. Recent studies suggest that increased atmospheric methane emissions produce additional water vapor through chemical reactions once the methane molecules reach the mesosphere – creating, or reinforcing existing, noctilucent clouds.
| Object |
Noctilucent Clouds |
| Constellation: |
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| Position: |
Sweden, Altitude about 80km |
| Apparent Size: |
|
| Apparent Magnitude: |
|
| Distance in km: |
700km |
| |
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| Photo Data |
|
| Date of Expose: |
07.07.2018, 21:00 UTC |
| Location: |
Leipzig/Germany (105m ASL) |
| Sky darkness SQM-L |
|
| Telescope: |
LUMIX G Vario Objektiv (14-42mm) @ f/d 3.5 / 14mm |
| Camera: |
LUMIX G3 |
| Field of View: |
deg |
| Pixel Scale/Resolution: |
arcsec/px |
| Expose frames/times: |
OSC ISO 1600, RAW 1x10s |
| Total expose: |
0min 10s |
| Filter: |
no |
| Mount: |
no |
| |
|
| Software: |
Photoshop CC |
| Remarks: |
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