Posted on 02/09/2023 2:18:20 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: Vivid and lustrous, wafting iridescent waves of color wash across this skyscape from Kilpisjärvi, Finland. Known as nacreous clouds or mother-of-pearl clouds, they are rare. But their unforgettable appearance was captured looking south at 69 degrees north latitude at sunset on January 24. A type of polar stratospheric cloud, they form when unusually cold temperatures in the usually cloudless lower stratosphere form ice crystals. Still sunlit at altitudes of around 15 to 25 kilometers, the clouds can diffract sunlight even after sunset and just before the dawn.
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Nice.
Awesome. In the past, those types of clouds have been blamed for having a role in ozone depletion.
I guess “she wore a nacreous necklace” wouldn’t have been as good a song for zz top.
According to grampa my grandmother was from Lapland. Right there where Oklahoma laps over into Arkansas.
funny how the Cirrus clouds far ABOVE these lit up clouds show no reflected light what so ever...
I call this one another photoshop scam.
My Grandmother used to sometimes say that we had a ‘mother of pearl’ sky; but it was nothing like this. Beautiful picture.
Very pretty.
The higher clouds would still be getting white sunlight directly from the sun, unlike the lower clouds that get light filtered thru the atmospheric dust and is thus scattered into it’s different colors.................
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