Noctilucent Clouds over Florida

Noctilucent Clouds over Florida

Credit & Copyright:
Pascal Fouquet

Explanation:
These clouds are doubly unusual.

First, they are rare
noctilucent clouds, meaning that they are
visible at night —
but only just before sunrise or just after sunset.

Second, the source of these
noctilucent clouds is actually known.

In this rare case, the source of the
sunlight-reflecting ice-crystals in the
upper atmosphere can be traced back to the
launch of a nearby SpaceX rocket about 30 minutes earlier.

Known more formally as polar mesospheric clouds,
the vertex of these icy wisps happens to converge just in front of a
rising crescent Moon.

The featured image — and
accompanying video — were captured over
Orlando,
Florida,
USA about a week ago.

The bright spot to the right of the Moon is the planet
Jupiter,
while the dotted
lights
above the horizon on the right are from an
airplane.