Extremely cold and wet conditions in the mesosphere have led to abundant noctilucent clouds.
Published Jul 9, 2020
Noctilucent clouds float high enough in the atmosphere to capture a little bit of stray sunlight even after the Sun has set below them.
Published Dec 2, 2016
In the northern hemisphere, night-shining clouds seem to be forming earlier and spreading farther each year, as they did in 2013.
Published Jun 25, 2013
The rare night-shining clouds seen in this photo are both forming more frequently and becoming brighter, trends that point to changes in the atmosphere linked to greenhouse gases.
Published Jan 27, 2011
An astronaut on the ISS caught a glimpse of a sliver of the setting Moon and some clouds that shine at night.
Published Aug 10, 2003
High-altitude clouds appeared as far south as the continental United States in early June 2015.
Published Jun 19, 2015
Polar mesospheric clouds (also known as noctilucent, or “night-shining” clouds) are transient, upper atmospheric phenomena that are usually observed in the summer months at high latitudes (greater than 50 degrees) of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They appear bright and cloudlike while in deep twilight. They are illuminated by sunlight when the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the darkness of Earth’s shadow.
Published Aug 4, 2008
High-altitude night-shining clouds form and dissipate on a daily cycle revealed in this series of images made from data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA’s Aura satellite.
Published Jan 28, 2011
Night-shining clouds high in the atmosphere over the southern polar region appear in shades of blue and orange in this astronaut photo from January 30, 2010.
Published Feb 22, 2010
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