Mysterious, Glowing Clouds Appear Across America's Night Skies

“Why are they getting more numerous? Why are they getting brighter? Why are they appearing at lower latitudes?”

Nobody knows for sure, but most of the answers seem to point to human-caused global atmospheric change.

I have a few problems with this particular statement.

Humans DO affect the environment. The extent to which we impact the earth varies depending on what you're talking about. But global climate change is a natural cycle of this planet. We have no way of knowing whether or not the current climactic shift would've happened without us affecting the environment in any way.

The C02 levels ARE rising and all the data proves this. We also see this in the form of oceanic absorption in which the toxicity levels of the oceans are riseing and starting to kill off corals of the great barrier reef in droves. But would it have happened regardless of man-made toxins and C02 emissions? It's quite possible it would have. Man-made C02 is a tiny fraction of a fraction of natural C02 emissions. And we now know that natural C02 emissions are rising dramatically all over the globe. Global warming is not necessarily being caused by my Ford focus. It's being caused by a normal, natural cycle of climactic shift on planet earth that is billions of years in the making.

I really hate when people write things like this because so many people consider the source, read it, and really believe it. It's not like these are man-made cyanide clouds of doom or something. It's just silly. I just wish people would consider the facts before the publish things like this.

-ChriS

I live in Northern England, just the right Latitude to see the Notilucent Clouds on a regular basis throught Summer. There seasonal phenomenon and the term "clouds" is misinterpreted as they occur far above the atmosphere almost in the upper reaches of space where Meteorid Debris burns up.
There quite a sight to see and Ive seen them bright enough to cast shadows, their luminosity is characteristic depending on their structure and mass and as such there not getting any larger as to predict a doomsday scenario or any of that nonsense.
There most likely vapouric gas that have gotten caught in the Earths Polar complex circulation and are just enjoying the time through a brief calm of Auroric Period before the sunspots come back and tear the clouds apart again through moleculic process as the Aurora charges up the upper atmosphere again where these clouds congregate.

There a thread I started on theses, including photos I;ve taken of them, here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Also worth reading this recent item which suggests the 'glowing skies' witnessed after the Tunguska explosion were caused by NLCs - something I consider to be very likely as they match the descriptions of the time perfectly.

Shuttle helps explain mysterious 1908 blast

Among the enduring mysteries: Following the explosion, the night skies shone brightly for several nights across Europe all the way to London, 3,000 miles away.

~ ~ ~

But which type of space rock was it?

New evidence from an unlikely source — water vapor in the exhaust plumes of space shuttles launched a century later — points to a comet.

The potential solution comes courtesy some strange clouds that scientists have only recently begun to understand.

Noctilucent clouds are brilliant, and visible only at night. Made of ice particles, they are Earth's highest clouds, forming in the mesosphere some 55 miles over the polar regions during the summer months when, up there, it is around minus 180 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 117 degrees Celsius).

Slightly related ( I think) last night here in the the south of London we actually had a thunderstorm, well quite a few flashes , but very little rumbling though? , but the flashes were actually pink, there was about 2 dozen flashes during the time I was watching 9-10pm GMT, one was right overhead but there was no thunderclap or rumble, apart form the that I was more suprised at the pink colouration of the lightning.

I knew I saw something when I saw the clouds that had a reddish-blue tint yesterday. Beautiful but I have never seen them before in my life.

The most obvious cause in my opinion is the increase in dust coming from space.
From the article:

Over the last 125 years, scientists have learned how the clouds form. At temperatures around minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, dust blowing up from below or falling into the atmosphere from space provides a resting spot for water vapor to condense and freeze.

From a bit older article at space.com:

Defenses Down, Galactic Dust Storm Hits Solar System
Our solar system's natural defenses are down and a vigorous cosmic dust storm is blowing through, according to a new study. The forecast calls for a prolonged and increasing blizzard of small interstellar bits.
While no serious consequences are expected, the extra dust could slightly alter our night sky and might pose an increased risk to spacecraft, which are vulnerable to high-speed impacts from the tiny particles.
The whole scenario is also a vivid reminder that there is no such thing as empty space.
The number of incoming particles recently tripled and the pace is expected to grow over the next decade. Terrestrial weather and climate will not likely be affected, but more shooting stars could grace the night sky, said the study's leader, Markus Landgraf of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The fresh influx is related to a periodic weakening of the Sun's magnetic field.
The discovery was made using data from ESA's Ulysses spacecraft, which orbits the Sun on a noncircular path between Earth and Jupiter and his been monitoring the situation since 1992. The probe detects small particles and, based on direction, mass and speed, figures out which ones came from outside the solar system.

Threefold increase
The number of interstellar dust grains increased from four per day, per meter in 1997 to 12 per day in 2000, Landgraf said. The results were announced earlier this month. He expects the rate to stay constant until 2005, and then increase by another factor of 3 prior to 2013.

So I would expect to see more of these clouds between now and, humorously enough, the end of 2012...

These clouds are normally only seen in the polar regions.

It is believed during a deep solar minimum, like the one we are in, these clouds would extend south.

Yet the first known report of the clouds were in 1885 and there were a number of deep solar minimums prior to that year. Supposedly there are no reports of any similar phenomena in human history until 1885.

This makes me think something much bigger is going on here, something much weirder.



[edit on 17/7/09 by MikeboydUS]

reply to post by MikeboydUS


Many scientists believe we are in for another ice age. It would be interesting to know whether or not these clouds are a precursor. Further, if a polar/magnetic shift were to take place as some have predicted (part of the 2012 stuff), then after the shift much of North America would be plunged into an ice age as well.

By the way, they do mention that it may not be caused by humans after all.
From the article:

The global changes that appear to be reshaping noctilucent cloud distribution could be much more complex, said Vincent Wickwar, an atmospheric scientist at Utah State University whose team was first to report a mid-latitude noctilucent cloud in 2002. Temperature does not explain their observations from around 42 degrees latitude.

“To get the noctilucent clouds you need temperatures that are about 20 degrees Kelvin colder than what we see on average up there,” Wickwar said. “We may have effects from CO2 or methane but it would only be a degree or a fraction of a degree.”

This is what I've often thought. Humans DO contribute to global warming, but its negligible at best.

Originally posted by axiomuser
The paranoid part of me says, 2009 + 3 years = 2012

actually 3 & 1/2 years would pretty much bring us up to December 2012 (yeah 6 months would really take us into Jan but it's pretty damn close)

Now why would they say that ?

Originally posted by DataWraith
but the flashes were actually pink, there was about 2 dozen flashes during the time I was watching 9-10pm GMT, one was right overhead but there was no thunderclap or rumble, apart form the that I was more suprised at the pink colouration of the lightning.

Pink lightning is not all that uncommon. The colour of lightning depends on atmospheric conditions at the time of the storm, pink lightning usually occurs when it is raining or there is rain present in the clouds.

Strangest lightning I ever saw was green when the strike hit an electricity substation.

____


There's a good page about noctilucent clouds here.

This is the statement from spacewather.com on 7-13-09

2009 has been a good year for noctilucent clouds--and that's no surprise. Noctilucent clouds almost always surge during years of solar minimum such as 2009. No one fully understands the link, but here is a popular idea: Low solar activity allows the upper atmosphere to cool, promoting the formation of tiny ice crystals that make up noctilucent clouds

www.spaceweather.com...

more 'experts' that dont know ??
Help, these people say they have all the answers...

“I suspect, as many of us feel, that it is global change, but I fear we don’t understand it,” Wickwar said. “It’s not as simple as a temperature change.”

Well, to say some thing I get bashed for :
'' Like in the days Of Noah ''

Other theories abound to explain the observed changes in the clouds. Human-caused increases in atmospheric methane, which oxidizes into carbon dioxide and water vapor, could be providing more water for ice in the stratosphere. Increases in the amount of cosmic or terrestrial dust in the stratosphere could also increase the number of brightly shining clouds

Some creationists think there was a water canapee in the upper atmosphere and it came down, but it can only happen on moons of jupiter this, so that is out of the question...

We'll just see if the scientists can figure it out..

Naawww.. it's not humans. Clearly the planet doesn't change for 10 of thousands of years, and in a 100 year span, there are a ton of changes, and we just happened to hit a "cycle" in this tiny margain of time. We are just lucky like that!

Even if human involvement IS a reason, let's just ignore it. There is a chance it isn't us after all, and the planet is worth taking the risk of not making changes to try to protect it, feh.

/headinsand

reply to post by axiomuser


2012 is the year the Mayans predicted the world ends . . . on the 21st December or something like that . . .

Originally posted by miss_sky
lotsa strange things happening lately, you have the land uplifting and the blob floating around the Alaskan waters and now these clouds, i wonder if its all connected somehow?

the blob floating around the Alaskan seas has been identified as algae.

Originally posted by Hezzaj
reply to post by axiomuser

 

2012 is the year the Mayans predicted the world ends . . . on the 21st December or something like that . . .

Incorrect, a common misconception. It is modern day man that has presumed the world ends in 2012, the Calendar predicts nothing, it only ends in 2012. Some say it dawns a new era of enlightenment, others prefer the doom & gloom prediction of the end of the world.

[edit on 17/7/09 by Discotech]

I saw a "glowing" or "Noctilucent" cloud last May (I live in north TX). Reading this post is most interesting, cause I had no idea what the "H" I was seeing. It happened after sunset, and on the horizon. I thought there must have been a fire or explosion, though I found nothing in the news. The clouds were glowing, on the horizon, very bright. It lasted for about an hour, till around 8:30 PM or so.

This certainly makes me feel good, as to this day, I had never figured out what I saw. Now I know.

GREAT POST! Thank you very much!

This is due to the suns current activities.

reply to post by MikeboydUS


i was wondering if anyone was going to catch that. in the article it is said these clouds come farther south during solar minimums. the upper atmosphere is cooled by the lack of solar activity and is cooled enough to produce water vapor in the form of ice crystals which is what the ncl's are made out of.this is the exact opposite of global warming.

I SAW THEM!

Earlier this week. It was 2 a.m. and I had to let the dog out ...
At first I thought they were the northern lights ...
but then I woke up more and saw they were glowing clouds ...

Strange.