photo #5255329

Has a wizard used his wand to write his name in the sky? No, this is actually a contrail formed by a rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US that was spotted by Andrea Moeller (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 42,319). Consisting of ice crystals from the water vapour mixed in with the other exhaust gases, the contrail had this scrawled appearance due to the differing wind directions as the rocket climbed through the high atmosphere. Likely forming up in the mesosphere, at altitudes of 30–50 miles (50–80 km), the manmade cloud is still illuminated by sunlight even long after the Sun dipped below the horizon and the lower atmosphere is dark. This qualifies it as a noctilucent cloud, which takes its name from the Latin for ‘night shining’.