Landscape photographers have a love/hate relationship with clouds. Too much or too little in our photos can cause grief when trying to compose a landscape shot, unless the clouds are interesting, of course, like in a storm.
But there is an interesting and rare cloud phenomenon that photographers have come across more and more of lately. These are called noctilucent clouds, and while they may look truly spectacular, they may actually be another canary in the coal mine.
In this video by Astrum, we get a full breakdown of what noctilucent clouds are, how and where they form, where they can be seen, and how they might be related to gas change Queen. According to historical data, noctilucent clouds have been increasing in number since they were first observed in 1885. The reason why their discovery and subsequent study is important to scientists science is that the mesosphere, where they are formed, is an extremely sensitive layer of the atmosphere. . Studying noctilucent clouds is like studying temperature fluctuations in the Arctic. These sensitive regions on Earth may be the first places scientists look to witness a future heralded by climate change.
In addition to the alleged link to climate change, noctilucent clouds can also be formed by rocket emissions from satellite launches, which is why most photographers today may be familiar with them. Below is an image taken at 6:58 p.m. (40 minutes after sunset) in southeastern Utah on October 31, 2017. In it, we can clearly see noctilucent clouds, but at that time. I don’t know what I’m looking at. , but took a few snaps just because they looked great.
After watching this video, I had to find this image again and try to figure out what caused these clouds to appear so far in the summer and so far south. After a bit of a Google search, I discovered that these noctilucent clouds could be the result of a rocket launch at Vandenberg AFB, just a few hours ago. The Vandenberg AFB space launch complexes are only 630 miles from where I am in Utah, so it’s quite possible that’s what I saw. Have you ever seen noctilucent clouds different from their usual place and time?
