By: Avika Gandhe
Have you ever seen the northern lights? In the United Kingdom, Around the February of 2016, many people spotted shining rainbow clouds in the sky, mistaking them for aurora borealis lights. However, after some research, universities found that these weren’t the northern lights, but a rare type of cloud, called nacreous clouds. So, what are these? “Mother of pearl” clouds, or nacreous clouds are disc shaped clouds found in extremely cold regions of the Earth. These dazzling clouds are usually only spotted in polar regions, and are very rare, since they only form at temperatures below -78 degrees Celsius. Nacreous clouds form in the lower stratosphere over polar regions, around twenty kilometers off the ground, and shine brilliantly when the Sun is just below the horizon, after the sun sets, and just before the sun rises. The ice particles that form nacreous clouds are much smaller than those that form more common clouds, causing them to scatter differently from normal clouds. This gives them an iridescent color and a bright glow that is similar to the northern lights. They are most common in Antarctica, but they can also be seen in Alaska, Scandinavia, and the UK. Would you like to see these clouds one day?
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