And here’s a photograph of genuine noctilucent clouds taken by one of our channel authors this Monday. These clouds floa…

And here’s a photograph of genuine noctilucent clouds taken by one of our channel authors this Monday. These clouds float at an altitude of approximately 76-85 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Known as mesospheric or night-shining clouds, they appear in the mesosphere, which lies above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere. This phenomenon is most commonly observed during summer.

Observers on Earth might mistake them for cirrus clouds, which hover at altitudes of 6-18 kilometers. However, cirrus clouds are only visible during the day, while noctilucent clouds can be seen after sunset or before sunrise. These clouds are extremely sparse and are the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere. They are visible only when the Sun is 6-16 degrees below the horizon, illuminating them from below.

There have been speculations that noctilucent clouds consist of volcanic or meteoric dust. However, data from the American satellite UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) has shown that they are primarily made of water ice.

Photo credit: ⚛ @science