Rare blue clouds in the polar region

A balloon of the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) travels through the Arctic region capturing images of rare blue clouds in the night sky.

This phenomenon is also known as or (PMCs) . A better understanding of this unusual phenomenon will help scientists study turbulence in the atmosphere, contributing to more accurate weather forecasts in the future.

Luminous clouds.

Noctilucent clouds can be observed immediately after the Sun sets at polar regions throughout the summer. The high-floor atmosphere has a low temperature, causing steam to condense and freeze around extremely small dust particles such as meteor dust. When ice crystals accumulate enough, we can observe many sparkling blue cloud bands, depending on the density of the ice particles inside the cloud.

"Our cameras are capable of encountering some really interesting events. We hope to have new insights into complex dynamics related to noctilucent clouds , " said Dave Fritts, head of NASA's PMC Turbo task, said.

In this mission, NASA launched a giant balloon to study PMCs at an altitude of 80km above the ground. The balloon was floating in the 5-day stratosphere and captured over 6 million high-resolution photos.

Gravity waves in the atmosphere - caused by the mass of air pushed up when they encounter obstacles like mountains - also contribute to the formation of noctilucent clouds.

"This is the first time we've been able to visualize the flow of energy from larger gravitational waves to smaller unstable currents and high-level atmospheric turbulence , " Fritts said.