What will 2019’s noctilucent cloud season bring?
Noctilucent clouds (or NLCs) can appear in the summer night skies in the northern hemisphere when the layer of high atmosphere known as the mesosphere cools to a sufficient level to allow clouds of ice crystals to form there. These beautiful tendril-like, wave-shaped clouds are so high up that they are able to catch the light from the Sun below our horizon and scatter it back down to Earth where, for us looking on, it’s night time. The result is a spectacular sight, typically low on the northern horizon, around 1.5-2 hours after sunset (or the same time before sunrise) with the clouds themselves taking on whitish and sometimes electric-blue colours. The NLC season usually begins around late May or early June and starts to draw to a close by August. 2018’s season as seen from the UK saw a handful of extensive and bright displays on clear nights, but what will 2019’s bring? Will we see the incredible sky-spanning shows like those seen widely in 2009 and 2010? As always, the fun is… we don’t know!