NASA Spacecraft Detects Beginning Of Noctilucent Cloud Season

NASA’s spacecraft has detected a massive meteorite-seeded noctilucent cloud in the Arctic Circle. The discovery marks one of the earliest starts of the noctilucent cloud season in 14 years.

The cloud was spotted by NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite. It was launched in 2007 to study the formation of noctilucent clouds.

Noctilucent clouds are cloud-like objects that form in the upper atmosphere of Earth. They are Earth’s highest clouds, and they usually appear near the edge of space over 80 kilometers above the surface.

These clouds usually form during the summer season as the heat causes the water vapors to rise up into the mesosphere. Once there, the water vapors crystalize around the small pieces of debris left by meteors that hit Earth.

As researchers were going through the data collected by the AIM spacecraft, they spotted a massive clump of noctilucent clouds over the Arctic Circle. It marked the first discovered of these high-altitude clouds during the summer season of the year.

Since the discovery was made on May 17, the researchers noted that the noctilucent cloud season started early this year. They regarded it as one of the earliest stars in 14 years since AIM’s mission started.

“In previous years, we have seen the first noctilucent clouds appear between May 15th and May 27th,” Cory Randall, a member of the AIM team at the University of Colorado, said according to SpaceWeather.com. “Only once, in 2013 (May 15th), has the northern season started earlier than this.”

Using the data collected by NASA’s Microwave Limb Sounder, the researchers were able to identify certain factors that may have caused the early start of the noctilucent cloud season this year.

According to Lynn Harvey of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, significant cooling has been detected in the mesosphere during the first half of May. She believes that the temperature conditions within the mesosphere may have triggered the rapid formation of the noctilucent clouds.

“Between May 1st and May 17th, conditions in the mesosphere significantly cooled and moistened, such that 2020 became the second coldest and third wettest year in the AIM record,” she explained.