Strange Skies
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Nebula

'Strongest colors ever seen': Iridescent clouds make another spectacular appearance above skies in South Iceland

Vala Hafstað
Iceland Monitor
Fri, 03 Jan 2020 09:54 UTC
iridescent clouds
© Mbl.is/Jónas ErlendssonThe sky above Vík í Mýrdal Friday morning.
Spectacular iridescent clouds formed in the sky above South Iceland Friday morning. As the sun came up, the sky was filled with rainbow colors.

Mbl.is reporter Jónas Erlendsson took the photo above east of Vík í Mýrdal between the hours of 9 and 10 am Friday. He states these are the strongest-colored iridescent clouds he has ever seen.

Another photo, sent to mbl.is , was taken in Hornafjörður, Southeast Iceland the same morning. It appears Nature took out its palette and brushes to create the most beautiful sight.

Comment: Recent reports of iridescent clouds (also known as Nacreous or Polar Stratospheric Clouds) have included comments such as that from residents who have lived in the area for 70 years stating that they were "once in a lifetime" events. Taken together with the numerous other sights in our skies, and other Earth Changes phenomena, it's clear that there are great changes afoot on our planet: Also check out SOTT radio's: And SOTTs monthly report documenting these events:



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Snowflake

Spectacular 'Sun Dog' observed in Jilin, northeastern China


CGTN
Thu, 02 Jan 2020 18:17 UTC
Halo and sundog in KC, MO
© Teresa and Mark Harvey
Residents in the city of Fuyu, northeast China's Jilin Province were thrilled to see three "suns" in the sky on the last day of 2019.

Around 8 a.m., two glowing spots were seen on the left and right side of the actual sun. The two extra "suns" were relatively bigger while the middle one smaller. The scene lasted for around 20 minutes.

This spectacular view, caused by a natural phenomenon called "sun dog," is also known as mock suns or parhelia.

As a result of light refraction through ice crystals, "sun dogs" become colored spots of light. This is an atmospheric optical phenomenon in nature, said Hu Xiao, the chief analyst of a weather reporting website.


The scenery is relatively rare, requesting strict meteorological conditions. First, the temperature required must be as below as minus 20. Besides temperature, the time of its occurrence is normally after sunshine but before morning, with a somewhat abundant amount of ice crystals.

The phenomenon went viral on Chinese social media, and some netizens referred to it as a rare scene in the story of Hou Yi.

Comment: It's not just the prevalence of 'ice crystals' in the atmosphere that creates conditions for this 'optical illusion' - it's particulates in general, so... volcanic dust, meteor 'smoke', smoke from wildfires...

All of which appear to be on the rise globally, hence the ever more regular appearance of what were once atmospheric 'anomalies'.

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Attention

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Jet streams break while 'once in a century' is our new norm


Adapt 2030
Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:18 UTC
Polar Stratospheric Clouds over Lapland
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)
Earth's winds and jet streams are reversing their flow sending record heat to Norway 15C/60F after Christmas and the Balkans are -5C/22F along the Adriatic Sea. Once in a lifetime Polar Stratospheric Clouds, coldest December temperature recorded in Pakistan. Update on Blue Star Kachina comet C/2017K2 arriving 2022.


Comment: See also: A recent study predicts the next solar cycle phase will bring on a 'Mini Ice Age' as early as 2020, as according to the models, there will be a "huge reduction" in solar activity for 33 years between 2020 and 2053. This will cause global temperatures to decrease drastically. Meanwhile NASA predicts the weakest solar activity in 200 years.

Jet Stream meanderings, and much more, are explained by Pierre Lescaudron in his book Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection:
So since about 1998, when the solar activity started to drop, the Arctic jet stream has shown signs of weakness (lower speed and more southerly location). Jet stream latitudinal oscillations have been acknowledged by mainstream science for years. They are allegedly due to changes in the Arctic oscillation. [561] So far, no convincing explanation has been provided for the causes of this 'oscillation'. However, if the electric nature of our solar system is taken into account, shifts in the jet stream begin to make sense...

Therefore, if solar activity is weak, the jet stream should be observed at abnormally low latitudes. This is what has happened in recent years, particularly over Europe, with the jet stream as low as 15° north in winter (above North Africa) when it should be around 60° north (above Scotland)...

In this way, a lasting decrease in solar activity would induce an overall cooling of the 'temperate' latitudes that would be increasingly less separated from Arctic air by a more frequently and abnormally south-shifting polar jet stream. This could be an aggravating factor in the quick onset of an ice age.


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Nebula

"Once in a lifetime" outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds captured on video above Sweden


Space Weather
Sun, 29 Dec 2019 23:30 UTC
polar stratospheric clouds
© Vimeo/Lights Over Lapland
A spectacular outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) is underway around the Arctic Circle. "This is a once in a lifetime event," says Chad Blakley, who runs the Lights over Lapland aurora tour service in Abisko, Sweden. "No question, this is the best that any of us have ever seen." Tour guide Paige Ellis took this video showing the clouds' aurora-like colors on Dec. 29th:

"They were so intense that lots of the tourists on the ground thought they were looking at daytime auroras. I had to explain that they were actually clouds in the stratosphere," says Blakley.

Polar stratospheric clouds are newsworthy because normally the stratosphere has no clouds at all. Home to the ozone layer, the stratosphere is arid and almost always transparent. Only when the temperature drops to a staggeringly cold -85C can sparse water molecules assemble themselves into icy stratospheric clouds. PSCs are far more rare than auroras.

Comment: Dazzling sights in our skies are on the increase, and so it remains to be seen if this really is a "once in a lifetime" event: And check out these other snaps taken during the outbreak:





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Camera

Unique halo, sundog combination illuminates a frosty sky in St. Louis, Missouri


FOX4KC
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 16:51 UTC
A unique light formation appeared in the Northland sky on Tuesday combining two more common sights — a halo and a sundog.

A viewer took a picture of the formation at 10:30 a.m. at the intersection of 169 Highway and Tiffany Springs Parkway. In the photo, you can see what looks like a circle of light with rainbow colors marked on both the left and right sides with brighter light spots.
Halo and sundog in KC, MO
© Teresa and Mark Harvey
Halos can form both around the sun and the moon, according to the National Weather Service. Although they're usually just white, sometimes they can contain rainbow colors, like in the photo.

Sundogs, also known as mock suns or parhelia, which means "with the sun," are located at about 22 degrees either left, right, or both, from the sun. The colors usually go from red closest to the sun, out to blue on the outside of the sundog.
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Sun

'Three suns' phenomena appears in sky over Khorgas city in western China

Tracy You
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 13 Dec 2019 06:25 UTC
Sun dog over Khorgas, China

Residents of a city in China have been stunned to see what looked like three suns hanging above the horizon.

The scene, spotted in the province of Xinjiang yesterday, is caused by a natural phenomenon known as a 'sun dog'.

Pictures and footage captured by eyewitnesses show two glowing spots, called 'phantom suns', appearing on the left and right side of the actual sun which was setting.

A sun dog happens when sunlight passes though ice crystals in a particular way when they are suspended in the air.
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Info

Unique interaction in Earth's magnetosphere causes new type of auroras


Sputnik News
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 22:52 UTC
New Type of Aurora
© CCO
The colourful lights adorning the skies at the North and South Poles have always been thought of as being the result of solar particles sneaking through the magnetic field of our planet and colliding with gases in the atmosphere. However, the aurora borealis spotted three years ago over the Arctic was caused by something else.

NASA intern Jennifer Briggs, studying physics at Pepperdine University, has discovered a new type of polar lights, or auroras, that was caused solely by a crunch in the Earth's magnetic field. The physicist noticed an anomaly when studying footage filmed from an island in Norway three years ago and satellite data with the help of NASA scientists, The Business Insider reports.

This aurora borealis did not have energised particles from the sun dance colliding with atmospheric gases thereby producing the magic-looking lights, like other phenomena of the kind. When it was spotted, the sun was not showing any heightened activity, for example, eruptions. This made them conclude that the lights were caused by a mysterious compression of the Earth's magnetic field, shrinking suddenly and rapidly.
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Info

'Ring of Fire' solar eclipse on Boxing Day 2019

Brian Lada
Accu Weather
Wed, 25 Dec 2019 05:08 UTC
Dec 2019 Eclipse
© Accu Weather
Saturday's solstice may have marked the shortest day of the year across Asia, but Thursday may be the darkest day of the year as a solar eclipse causes the day to turn dark.

Most of Asia will experience a partial solar eclipse on Thursday, as well as some parts of eastern Africa and northern Australia, but a small area will experience an annular solar eclipse, sometimes called a 'ring of fire' eclipse. This includes part of the Middle East, southern India, northern Sri Lanka, and part of the Philippines.

The best time to view the eclipse will be in the early morning in the Middle East, mid-morning in India and Sri Lanka, and early afternoon in Indonesia, but precise times will vary from location to location.

A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun, but the type of eclipse that unfolds depends on how far away the moon is from the Earth.

When an eclipse happens when the moon is near perigee, the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Earth, the moon appears large enough to cover the entire face of the sun, resulting in a total solar eclipse.

But on Thursday, the moon will be near apogee, the point in its orbit when it is farthest away from the Earth. As a result, the moon will not quite be large enough to cover the entire sun, leaving behind a ring of light.

This ring of sunlight around the moon during the height of an annular solar eclipse is how it earned the nickname of a 'ring of fire' eclipse.
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Nebula

Best of the Web: Stunning iridescent clouds snapped above skies of Siberia's Belukha mountain


The Siberian Times
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC
Svetlana Kazina
© Svetlana Kazina"The clouds in my photos are so thin that they look more like lace."
Local photographer Svetlana Kazina caught a rare natural phenomenon on camera.

"The clouds in my photos are so thin that they look more like lace" - Svetlana Kazina

Svetlana Kazina, who lives in the Altai Mountains, snapped these breathtaking pictures of the glowing sky over Belukha mountain, Siberia's highest peak (4,506 metres/14,783ft).

Belukha Mountain, literally 'whitey' in Russian, is the highest peak of the Altai Mountains in Russia. Located in the Altai Republic, Belukha is a three-peaked mountain massif that rises along the border of Russia and Kazakhstan, just a few dozen miles north of the point where this border meets with the border of China.

The images show thin clouds resembling soap bubbles in colours.

Iridescent clouds, also known as rainbow clouds, occur when sunlight scatters through water droplets in the atmosphere.

Comment: 'Rare' and wondrous sights in the skies are becoming ever more common on our changing planet. Their 'iridescence' is thought to be the result of ice crystals, typically seen in polar stratospheric clouds, also called nacreous cloud. The phenomenon is named after the Greek goddess Iris, goddess of rainbows and messenger of Zeus and Hera to the mortals below... Also check out SOTT radio's: As well as SOTT's monthly Earth Changes Summary - November 2019: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs:



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Question

100 previously catalogued stars just vanished!

Dirk Schultze-Makuch
Air&Space Magazine
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 16:00 UTC
MIssing Stars
© Villarroel et al.Where'd it go? An image taken in the 1950s (left) shows a large object at center that doesn't appear in an image of the same field taken more recently.
Physics in Sweden and the Institute for Astrophysics on the Canary Islands reports something strange in the current issue of The Astronomical Journal. They compared star maps from the 1950s with recent surveys, and discovered that 100 previously catalogued stars cannot be found anymore.

The group's project, called Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) has been comparing mapped stars listed in the U.S. Naval Observatory Catalogue (USNO) B 1.0, dating from the 1950s, with those in another, more recent sky catalog, the Pan-STARRS Data Release (DR1). A total of 150,000 objects were found in the older catalogue (which lists 600 million stars) that did not have a readily identifiable counterpart in the new star survey, even though the Pan-STARRS Data Release includes stars that are five times less bright than the faintest light sources included in USNO. Of these 150,000 anomalies, the authors visually inspected 24,000 candidates and discovered that 100 of these point sources of light appear only in the older star survey. And since then, apparently, they've vanished.

Certainly, the most parsimonious explanation for the missing stars is that they are natural phenomena such as extremely flaring dwarf planets, failed supernova, or stars that might directly collapse into a black hole. But there seem to me too many anomalies to explain all the vanished stars as known natural phenomena. In their current paper, the authors themselves discuss the possibility that they're seeing unknown phenomena, or that the vanished "stars" could be relics of technologically advanced civilizations, particularly the theoretical mega-engineering projects known as Dyson spheres.
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