{"id":54977,"date":"2025-07-15T15:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T10:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=54977"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:19:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T10:49:16","slug":"noctilucent-clouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/noctilucent-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"Noctilucent Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Noctilucent Clouds Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rare noctilucent clouds that form in summer high up in the Earth&#8217;s atmosphere have been recently seen from parts of Scotland.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Noctilucent Clouds<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are t<\/span><b>hin, wispy clouds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that <\/span><b>glow with a blue or silvery hue at night when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Horizon <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">refers to the apparent <\/span><b>line that separates the Earth from<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>sky<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014specifically, the point below which the Sun appears to set.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name \u2018noctilucent\u2019 is derived from the Latin words &#8220;nocto&#8221; and &#8220;lucent&#8221; which translates to &#8220;night&#8221; and &#8220;shining&#8221; respectively.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are sometimes referred to as <\/span><b>polar mesospheric clouds.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of our planet&#8217;s clouds form in the Earth&#8217;s troposphere. Noctilucent clouds are <\/span><b>located in <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the third layer of Earth&#8217;s atmosphere, the <\/span><b>mesosphere, making them Earth&#8217;s highest clouds.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>only appear during the summer months,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>only at latitudes between<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about <\/span><b>45 and 80 degrees <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">north or south of the equator.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the <\/span><b>Northern Hemisphere,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> they can appear from the <\/span><b>end of May to<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>beginning of August, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with sightings more likely during June and July.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the <\/span><b>Southern Hemisphere,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> noctilucent cloud sightings are <\/span><b>much rarer,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but they can be visible from the <\/span><b>end of November to<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the<\/span><b> beginning of February<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with sightings most likely during December and January.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In these months and at the right latitudes, the <\/span><b>Sun only just sets below the horizon at nighttime.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That means these very <\/span><b>high clouds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can still be <\/span><b>lit by bright sunlight from below, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">even though the <\/span><b>rest of the surface is in darkness <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2013 making the <\/span><b>clouds appear to glow.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Sun sets increasingly less below the horizon the further north <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you go, which means <\/span><b>northern latitudes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will <\/span><b>experience noctilucent clouds for longer during the night.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>How are Noctilucent Clouds Formed?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>formed of ice crystals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">;<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the<\/span><b> summer <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>mesosphere becomes cold enough<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to allow <\/span><b>ice to form on suspended dust particles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> floating in the atmosphere.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>dust particles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> may originate <\/span><b>from micrometeorites falling to Earth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from space, or the <\/span><b>dust left over from volcanic eruptions.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Humans have also accidentally seeded our own noctilucent clouds through the <\/span><b>exhausts of rockets <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">propelled into space.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>ice crystals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that form <\/span><b>reflect the sunlight<\/b> <b>when <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>Sun hits them from below, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">causing the clouds&#8217; characteristic shimmer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c0j4e32p0ydo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BBC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Noctilucent Clouds are thin, wispy clouds that glow with a blue or silvery hue at night when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon. Read more about Noctilucent Clouds, Meaning, Layers, Formation, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":55002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1555,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-54977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-noctilucent-clouds","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}