Night-shining cloudsClouds that form high in the atmosphere may still glow, even when the sun has se

Night-shining cloudsClouds that form high in the atmosphere may still glow, even when the sun has set from that part of the globe. Such clouds, known as noctilucent or polar mesospheric form about 76 to 85 kilometers(47 to 53 miles) above the Earth’s surface. They have been spotted from various points of view, including airplanes and spacecraft. Low temperatures at those heights(-130 degrees Celsius,-200 degrees Fahrenheit), will freeze any water into ice crystals. Those crystals can then be illuminated by the sun, which has set from the point of view of people on the ground but can still illuminate the clouds high up. However, they can mostly be seen in far latitudes (above 50 degrees).These clouds are sensitive to the amount of water in the atmosphere as well as temperatures in the mesosphere. They may also be getting brighter due to climate change.The orange band seen is the stratosphere. Below that is the troposphere, the atmospheric layer in which most of the Earth weather occurs.-CHDSource: http://www.space.com/19381-night-shining-clouds-image.htmlImage: An photograph of night-shining clouds taken with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 400 millimeter lens by an astronaut aboard the ISS on January 5, 2013. CREDIT: NASA Earth Observatory -- source link

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