As if the northern lights weren’t enough, residents near the Arctic were recently able to enjoy another beautiful sight. sky colors. It’s about rainbow clouds which were observed between December 18 and December 20 in places such as Norway, Sweden, Finland or Alaska. But also much further south, in Scotland.
This is not something new. This is a relatively common phenomenon in these parts, where it is called pearl clouds. However, these rainbow clouds are usually seen in January and in a much more specific way. Watch them during Three days in a row and at the beginning of December it became a wonderful Christmas present for those who had the pleasure of seeing them.
Will you see them again in January? Who knows. The main ingredient for its formation is cold and, at least for now, there are plenty of them in these places. Another thing is what climate change might do to them in the future.
How are rainbow clouds formed?
Rainbow clouds form at high altitudes. from 15 to 25 kilometers. This is much higher than the altitude at which clouds usually form, since the humidity is usually lower. However, in places with extremely low temperatures, water vapor at that altitude can coalesce to form small ice crystals that cluster together and act like prisms, breaking up the sunlight that hits them and making objects visible. Rainbow colors.
There are two types of these clouds, also known as polar stratospheric clouds. Type I contains, in addition to water, nitric and sulfuric acids present in the atmosphere and their formation requires temperatures below -78°С. Type II contains pure water and requires even lower temperatures.
The former are dangerous because they contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer. On the other hand, the latter only give us a beautiful spectacle. The rainbow clouds recently spotted in the Arctic are of the second type.
When can you see each other?
Most of the photographs of these rainbow clouds were taken by Norwegians. Ramune Sapailaite. In statements to Space weatherhe explained that the clouds were visible during the three days mentioned, but the explosion of color appeared with sunset.
The photographer, who also shared the photos on his Facebook account, said it was rare to see them at this time of year, especially on multiple days in a row. They are necessary unusually low temperatureseven for this point in the world, which is why it’s so strange to see them.
It is believed that in this case the clouds could have been driven Boy, the passage of which resulted in particularly low temperatures in parts of the northern hemisphere.
However, since winter has just begun, more rainbow clouds are expected to be seen during winter. next months. Perhaps not as far south as Scotland, but in places closer to the poles, where the colors of the sky seem much more varied than ours.
Source: Hiper Textual
