NASA's AIM spacecraft is monitoring a vast ring of electric-blue clouds circling high above Antarctica. These are noctilucent clouds (NLCs), made of ice crystals frosting specks of "meteor smoke" in the mesosphere 83 km above the frozen continent. Here is an animation from the past week:
© NASA
This is the season for southern noctilucent clouds. Every year around this time, summertime water vapor billows up into the high atmosphere over Antarctica, providing moisture needed to form icy clouds at the edge of space. Sunlight shining through the high clouds produces an electric-blue glow, which AIM can observe from Earth's orbit.
"The current season began on Nov. 19th," says Cora Randall, a member of the AIM science team at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. "Compared to
previous years of AIM data, this season seems to be fairly average, but of course one never knows what surprises lie ahead, particularly since the southern hemisphere seasons are so variable."
Comment: Irish Central reports Storm Eleanor battered the shores with winds over 80 mph, with Galway catching the worst. The storm coincided with high tide in Galway City leaving fallen trees and severe flooding in its wake: