Mother-of-pearl clouds inside the stratosphere

Students project of Earth to Sky Calculus January 22 were in the Arctic circle, in preparation for the launching of balloons to study cosmic radiation. For a few minutes before the start the sky began to appear polar stratospheric clouds, and the group hurried to launch two balloons in the heart of the outbreak.

Polar stratospheric clouds are very rare. They are formed in the stratosphere in the temperature of -85 °C. Balloons with cameras recorded video of clouds from a height of 23 km According to scientists, this is the first time when the mother-of-pearl clouds was captured directly from their environment — the stratosphere. The footage shows a fibrous structure that cannot be seen from earth.

Deliver balloons in the stratosphere helped the stratospheric polar vortex — jet stream in the Arctic stratosphere. Shortly before the launch of the polar vortex something strange happened: he has become elliptical and rotated, splashing a lot of cold stratospheric air over the Northern parts of Scandinavia.

Looked like a vortex on January 22-23, you can see on the data obtained by the instrument of the NASA Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). Note the purple drop over the North of Sweden. This cold air. Polar stratospheric clouds can form inside the area with white outline.

Polar stratospheric clouds are considered the most beautiful sky on Earth. They consist of tiny ice crystals that dissipate high-altitude sunlight, and make them sparkle with bright colors, like fluorescent lights.

Photos of the student's Earth to Sky Jordan Herbst from January 22-23 show how the clouds looked from the ground. Now we know that they are inside the stratosphere, they are no less beautiful.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»