photo #5647414

On October 7, 2018, Howard Balentine (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 46,351) observed an artificial noctilucent cloud over Camarillo, California, US. The cloud was produced by the separation of the second stage of a Falcon rocket, launched just after sunset from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Howard explained his image, ‘The booster separation altitude is approximately 24,000 metres (about 80,000 feet). The second stage (upper left) has ignited and continues its mission. The two reusable first-stage booster rockets are making pinwheels (on the right) while in a holding pattern awaiting command to return to Earth for reuse.’Noctilucent clouds, named with the Latin for ‘night shining’, are so high in the atmosphere that they catch the sunlight when the rest of the sky is dark. Too faint ever to show up during daylight, they appear with a ghostly bluish tint. Noctilucent clouds also appear naturally in our atmosphere. The highest of all cloud types, the natural one forms much higher than man-made noctilucent clouds – up as high as 80 km (50 miles). Also known as polar mesospheric clouds, the natural ones appear only during the summer months. Also, you’ll only be able to see them from the most northern or southern parts of the world. Not so for human-induced noctilucent clouds. As Howard put it, ‘you don’t always need to be at higher latitudes to see electric-blue noctilucent clouds. You just need to be near a place that launches rockets’.