by APOD Robot » Tue Jul 09, 2024 4:06 am
Noctilucent Clouds over Florida
Explanation: These clouds are
doubly unusual. First, they are rare
noctilucent clouds, meaning that they are
visible at night -- but only just before sunrise or just after sunset. Second, the source of these
noctilucent clouds is actually known. In this rare case, the source of the
sunlight-reflecting ice-crystals in the
upper atmosphere can be traced back to the
launch of a nearby SpaceX rocket about 30 minutes earlier. Known more formally as
polar mesospheric clouds, the vertex of these icy wisps happens to converge just in front of a
rising crescent Moon. The featured image -- and
accompanying video -- were captured over
Orlando,
Florida,
USA about a week ago. The bright spot to the right of the Moon is the planet
Jupiter, while the dotted
lights above the horizon on the right are from an
airplane.
[url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240709.html] [img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_240709.jpg[/img] [size=150]Noctilucent Clouds over Florida[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] These clouds are [url=https://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/image/2540564/792x594/scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg]doubly[/url] unusual. First, they are rare [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud]noctilucent clouds[/url], meaning that they are [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220712.html]visible at night[/url] -- but only just before sunrise or just after sunset. Second, the source of these [url=https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-noctilucent-clouds/]noctilucent clouds[/url] is actually known. In this rare case, the source of the [url=https://www.weather.gov/arx/why_halos_sundogs_pillars]sunlight-reflecting ice-crystals[/url] in the [url=https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mesosphere/en/]upper atmosphere[/url] can be traced back to the [url=https://youtu.be/z3yDEVxI5TM]launch of a nearby SpaceX rocke[/url]t about 30 minutes earlier. Known more formally as [url=https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/80217/polar-mesospheric-clouds-south-pacific-ocean]polar mesospheric clouds[/url], the vertex of these icy wisps happens to converge just in front of a [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211010.html]rising[/url] crescent Moon. The featured image -- and [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2407/NoctilucentFlorida_Pouquet.mp4]accompanying video[/url] -- were captured over [url=https://youtu.be/an8cAHG-pqs]Orlando[/url], [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida]Florida[/url], [url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/united-states/]USA[/url] about a week ago. The bright spot to the right of the Moon is the planet [url=https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/]Jupiter[/url], while the dotted [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240609.html]lights[/url] above the horizon on the right are from an [url=https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/VirtualAero/BottleRocket/airplane/airplane.html]airplane[/url].
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