NASA Balloon Observes Rare Electric Blue Clouds

On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Read the story: https://go.nasa.gov/2QPcrOD
Forming fifty miles above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds — PMCs. A recent NASA long-duration balloon mission observed these clouds over the course of five days at their home in the mesosphere. The resulting photos, which scientists have just begun to analyze, will help us better understand turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as in oceans, lakes, and other planetary atmospheres, and may even improve weather forecasting.

Music credit: “In The End” By Andrew John Skeet [PRS], Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS] from Killer Tracks
Credits: David Fritts (GATS): Scientist
Joy Ng (USRA): Producer
Mara Johnson-Groh (Wyle Information Systems): Writer Tom Bridgman (GST): Data Visualizer
William Putman (NASA/GSFC): Data Visualizer

This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13073

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