You know those mental lists that everyone has of stuff they want to do/see before they die? One of mine was to see an aurora. Tonight I was almost able to tick that one off my list, and was reminded of why I want to see a proper one. The nightshift was entering the graveyard hour of 2am when the yearning for bed is especially acute, when we got a call from one of the producers who'd just got home. She reported seeing strange blue clouds in the sky as she was driving back to her house.
We all hurried out to the balcony and witnessed a spectacular display of noctilucent clouds. For those not in the know, clouds become noctilucent during midsummer, when the sun never quite drops below the horizon. It was midsummer day yesterday, so the timing is spot on. The strange light displays are caused by light hitting ice crystals in the clouds 50 miles up. In this case, the sky turned a eerie and stunning turquoise blue with delicate herringbone ripples. Ok, so the light was hovering over the White City building and the A40 motorway, but my goodness it was still really beautiful. I still want to go see the Aurora Borealis over the North Pole one day though...
More info from BBC News here. Pic from Wikipedia here because I don't have my camera with me.
Could there be a dark side to the bright clouds? According to a recent story in New Scientist noctilucent clouds are becoming more common, and it may be down to global warming (that again). Nicer than drowning polar bears though.
story and eerie photo from space here:
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn9228.html
Posted by: susan | June 23, 2006 at 01:31 AM