Astropolis Channel has published a timelapse taken by astrophotographer Serhii Khomenko in western Ukraine. It shows a beautiful summer phenomenon known as noctilucent clouds.
Noctilucent clouds are luminous clouds that can be seen in the northern part of the sky. They appear 1 – 2 hours after sunset or before dawn and attract attention with their “ghostly” structure and characteristic noctilucent color, thanks to which they got their name. They’re also the highest clouds on Earth. They form in the mesosphere at altitudes of 76 to 85 kilometers.
The video was made in the morning of June 18 in the town of Berezhany, Ternopil region. It clearly shows the change in the shape of noctilucent clouds due to the action of air masses in the mesosphere. This information is of considerable interest to scientists, for the mesosphere is one of the most poorly studied regions of the Earth’s atmosphere.
To learn more about how noctilucent clouds are formed and why they can be seen only in summer, you can learn from the material prepared by our editors.
