Since the late 1800s, observers have searched the polar skies for elusive, high-flying clouds that shine in the darkness. These polar mesospheric clouds, or PMCs,…
Smooth, stationary clouds are occasionally reported by the public as sightings of “unidentified flying objects.” But these clouds are not as mysterious as they might…
New research provides insights into how cirrus clouds form, with implications for agriculture, urban development and climate-change predictions. The study shows that trees and plants…
Every summer in the Northern Hemisphere, electric blue streaks form high in the atmosphere. These seasonal clouds typically lurk about 80 kilometers (50 miles) overhead…
Strange times meet strange clouds. Noctilucent or ‘night shining’ clouds (NLC) are captured over Knowlton Church in Dorset, UK, by astrophotographer Ollie Taylor in the…
In 2008, atmospheric scientist Santiago Gassó authored a study that highlighted abnormally bright trails of clouds around remote peaks in the South Sandwich Islands. The…
Ice-blue clouds are drifting high above the Arctic, which means the Northern Hemisphere’s noctilucent cloud season is here. NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere…
Scientists from Leipzig measure an important sub-process of the water cycle. Vertical air motions increase ice formation in mixed-phase clouds. This correlation was predicted theoretically…
Looking at Earth from the International Space Station, astronauts see big, white clouds spreading across the planet. They cannot distinguish a gray rain cloud from…
Two published papers reveal Kelvin-Helmholtz waves at the boundaries of near-Earth space, showing that they can appear under any conditions and are much more prevalent…
This composite image shows noctilucent clouds over the Arctic captured by NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere Spacecraft. In the late spring and summer,…
Researchers analyzed NASA satellite data from 2000 – 2010 and found that the global average cloud height declined by around one percent over the decade,…
Something interesting happened in the skies of Alabama recently. You might say that it made waves even. Wave shaped clouds. It’s an effect known as…