No Clouds – No Problem – Create your Own !

No Clouds – No Problem – Create your Own !

Forums The Cloud Forum No Clouds – No Problem – Create your Own !

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    • #474354
      John Murrell avatarJohn Murrell
      Participant

      Noctilucent Clouds also knows as polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) naturally occur in the atmosphere at around 80km in the summer. The formation of the clouds require cold temperatures, water vapour & nuciation sites possibly provided by dust from Meteors. Note the upper atmosphere is colder in the Summer than in the winter.

      NASA and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks recently attempted to create their own PMC by exploding a rocket containing 220kg of pure water in the upper atmosphere the results can be seen at: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-mission-seeks-to-understand-bright-night-shining-clouds-by-creating-one.

      The paper (open access) can be found at https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2019JA027285

      Another man made cloud to add to the IMO list !

      Lots of points for spotting one of these

    • #474645
      Hans Stocker avatarHans Stocker
      Participant

      Thanks for sharing this great info John.

    • #476178
      Patricia L Keelin avatarPatricia L Keelin
      Participant

      Thank you, John! I like to think I might become a bit of colorful icy crystal in one of these bright wonders…at some (hopefully distant) point in the future. ;)

    • #476205
      John Murrell avatarJohn Murrell
      Participant

      Hello Keelin,

      I think if one crunched the numbers some of the molecules of water vapour you have breathed out in your ( and my) life are in fact in those clouds already.

      It’s due to just how small a molecule is and therefore the number you breath out over your lifetime. Even though there are even more in the water in all the world once mixed the possibility of their being one molecule in a volume of a cubic meter is quite high. The same applies to the oxygen in air.

       

       

       

    • #476307
      Patricia L Keelin avatarPatricia L Keelin
      Participant

      Oh, what a lovely thought. Thank you for this inspiration on expiration!

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