noctilucent clouds
Watch out for the noctilucent clouds. They perhaps portend disaster and the end of time.
It is a phenomenon that was first observed in 1885.
That year was quite important in sky watching because it followed 1884 and preceded 1886.
Seriously, in the past few days, layers of multicolored clouds are presenting themselves in the middle of the night in the Omaha area and similar latitudes. They’ve been spotted in Paris (France, not Kentucky) and Seattle.
A spokesman at the Jackson weather station said Monday the station has so far gotten no reports of the colored clouds.
The clouds are not to be confused with the aurora borealis, also called Northern Lights.
I’m not sure what the difference is, but there seems to be a difference.
But the mysterious glowing clouds have been seen before only in the Earth’s polar regions.
The scientific word for clouds glowing at night is “noctilucent,” which means night shining.
What’s interesting about the glow from the clouds is the fact that they activate the werewolves in the area, as well as zombies.
(Not really, but some may want to think so.)
OK, I’ll be serious. The clouds are said to be formed by ice that is at the boundary where the earth’s atmosphere meets space at about 50 miles up.
They shine because the light of the sun bounces off them, even when the sun has set at the latitudes at which the clouds can be seen.
That’s because the sun shines across the top of the globe and illuminates the clouds.
With the phenomena being visible in Omaha, they may be visible in this area. It seems that Omaha’s latitude is just about five degrees north of Corbin and four degrees north of London.
It is feared that the clouds are the harbingers of not-so-good things to come such as the dreaded global warming.
Though the noctilucent clouds are fundamentally new in the mid-latitudes, they have been visible in the arctic areas for a long time.
Sky watchers aren’t sure why they’ve come south from the poles over the past 25 years. And more of them are appearing over the poles and are brighter.
In the past 125 years, scientists have learned how they form. When the atmosphere reaches temperatures of about 230 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, dust blows up from the earth or falls from space into the atmosphere.
Water vapor in the atmosphere condenses and freezes on the dust, thus producing a cloud of frozen water.
You add that to the fact that in summer, the atmosphere is heating up and expanding into the cold frozen area we call space, which means the atmosphere is getting even colder because its outer edge is going deeper into space.
So, the global warming people say, it’s easy to see how a buildup of carbon dioxide at 50 miles above the surface of the earth would cause the temperature to drop.
But, they say, temperature observations remain inconclusive.
That’s one of the explanations. Another comes from Utah State University which says that temperature does not explain the sighting of the clouds at around 42 degrees.
Utah State’s explanation has something to do with LIDAR. Don’t ask me what LIDAR is. I don’t know and don’t think I really want to know.
But, the next time at about 1 a.m. when you are outside and see in the sky a cloud, go get the phone immediately, call all the friends of whom you can think and tell them you’ve seen a noctilucent cloud. But don’t tell them what it is. Keep them wondering.
Maybe you could make some slight reference to werewolves or zombies.
Carl Keith Greene is a writer for the Times-Tribune. He can be reached at cgreene@thetimestribune.com
Watch out for the noctilucent clouds. They perhaps portend disaster and the end of time.
It is a phenomenon that was first observed in 1885.
That year was quite important in sky watching because it followed 1884 and preceded 1886.
Seriously, in the past few days, layers of multicolored clouds are presenting themselves in the middle of the night in the Omaha area and similar latitudes. They’ve been spotted in Paris (France, not Kentucky) and Seattle.
A spokesman at the Jackson weather station said Monday the station has so far gotten no reports of the colored clouds.
The clouds are not to be confused with the aurora borealis, also called Northern Lights.
I’m not sure what the difference is, but there seems to be a difference.
But the mysterious glowing clouds have been seen before only in the Earth’s polar regions.
The scientific word for clouds glowing at night is “noctilucent,” which means night shining.
What’s interesting about the glow from the clouds is the fact that they activate the werewolves in the area, as well as zombies.
(Not really, but some may want to think so.)
OK, I’ll be serious. The clouds are said to be formed by ice that is at the boundary where the earth’s atmosphere meets space at about 50 miles up.
They shine because the light of the sun bounces off them, even when the sun has set at the latitudes at which the clouds can be seen.
That’s because the sun shines across the top of the globe and illuminates the clouds.
With the phenomena being visible in Omaha, they may be visible in this area. It seems that Omaha’s latitude is just about five degrees north of Corbin and four degrees north of London.
It is feared that the clouds are the harbingers of not-so-good things to come such as the dreaded global warming.
Though the noctilucent clouds are fundamentally new in the mid-latitudes, they have been visible in the arctic areas for a long time.
Sky watchers aren’t sure why they’ve come south from the poles over the past 25 years. And more of them are appearing over the poles and are brighter.
In the past 125 years, scientists have learned how they form. When the atmosphere reaches temperatures of about 230 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, dust blows up from the earth or falls from space into the atmosphere.
Water vapor in the atmosphere condenses and freezes on the dust, thus producing a cloud of frozen water.
You add that to the fact that in summer, the atmosphere is heating up and expanding into the cold frozen area we call space, which means the atmosphere is getting even colder because its outer edge is going deeper into space.
So, the global warming people say, it’s easy to see how a buildup of carbon dioxide at 50 miles above the surface of the earth would cause the temperature to drop.
But, they say, temperature observations remain inconclusive.
That’s one of the explanations. Another comes from Utah State University which says that temperature does not explain the sighting of the clouds at around 42 degrees.
Utah State’s explanation has something to do with LIDAR. Don’t ask me what LIDAR is. I don’t know and don’t think I really want to know.
But, the next time at about 1 a.m. when you are outside and see in the sky a cloud, go get the phone immediately, call all the friends of whom you can think and tell them you’ve seen a noctilucent cloud. But don’t tell them what it is. Keep them wondering.
Maybe you could make some slight reference to werewolves or zombies.
Carl Keith Greene is a writer for the Times-Tribune. He can be reached at cgreene@thetimestribune.com
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