Curiosity sees bright night clouds in the sky of Mars | Earth

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Nocturnal clouds moving in the sky of Mars, seen by Curiosity's Sol 2410 rover. Curiosity captured these clouds on Sol 2410 (May 18, 2019). The clouds are sunny although the sun has set; they are nocturnal clouds or shining clouds at night. The animation was assembled from 3 sets of 3 Navcam images. Via NASA / JPL-Caltech / Justin Cowart / Planetary Society.

Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society recently reported that the Curiosity rover on Mars was seeing noctilucent clouds – or "shining at night" – in the skies of Mars. This news comes just as the night cloud season begins for the northern part of the Earth. We already hear rumors from the Facebook group Noctilucent clouds around the world that European observers have been observing these clouds in recent nights. Learn about night clouds visible in the Earth's sky below. First, here is what Lakdawalla said about Curiosity's rover vision on these clouds on Mars; she wrote on May 28, 2019:

Curiosity has been raised after sunset recently. It takes Navcam-sized pictures and the camera's relatively wide field of view (45 degrees) allows it to capture a lot of clouds, giving us all the chance to see them on Earth too. [The image at the top of this page] is a spectacular set including 3 sets of 3 images that can be assembled into a panoramic animation, made here by Justin Cowart.

Here is another image, acquired by Curiosity on May 27, 2019. Lakdawalla emphasizes that, even if it does not animate, it covers a very large part of the Martian sky:

Lakdawalla also wrote:

The previous views pointed to one place in the sky, so they do not quite have the impact of the panoramas. On the plus side, they contain more no time. Here is an example.

Black and white animation of high clouds, vaporous and illuminated in a night sky.

Noctilucent clouds in motion, Curiosity, Sol 2405. Curiosity looked up after the sun set on 2405 (May 13, 2019) and saw cirrus clouds moving, way above the ground. Because of their high altitude, the clouds are still sunny, making them nocturnal clouds. Image via NASA / JPL-Caltech / Justin Cowart / Planetary Society.

Lakdawalla pointed out that these images of Mars have disadvantages. On the one hand, she wrote:

As they are taken after sunset, Navcam requires long exposures to produce these images: 10 to 70 seconds. These exceptionally long exposure times emphasize camera imperfections, making images "snowy", especially 70 seconds. This is not serious. They are always beautiful.

And she pointed out the lack of color in the pictures:

Navcam is a monochrome camera, so it can not do it. Curiosity Color Mastcam can take color photos, but with a much narrower field of view, which prevents us from seeing the scenic landscape.

And that brings us to the following images of noctilucent clouds, taken not from Mars, but from our own Earth. In the Earth's heavens, these clouds form in the highest part of our atmosphere – the mesosphere – up to 80 km from the surface. They are thought to be made of ice crystals that form on the fine particles of meteor dust. They can only be formed when temperatures are incredibly low and water is available to form ice crystals.

Colorful night image of boats on a waterfront, with bright nighttime clouds overhead.

See on EarthSky Community Photos. | Nocturnal clouds or nocturnal clouds seen over the Masurian Lake District in northern Poland on June 3, 2019 via Dorota Anna.

Nocturnal and terrestrial clouds are a seasonal phenomenon and the 2019 season for the northern hemisphere has barely begun. For best results, look for these clouds from around May to August in the northern hemisphere and from November to February in the southern hemisphere. Now the bad news. We do not see them everywhere on Earth, but it is a phenomenon of high latitude. You must be between 45 and 60 degrees north or south to see the night clouds.

This is why we usually see pictures of noctilucent clouds in the sky of the Earth taken by people from Scandinavia or Northern Europe. Adrien Louis Mauduit – who works for the Aurora Borealis observatory on Senja Island in Norway – also runs the Facebook page "Nuclilucent clouds" around the world. This page is an excellent resource for those who want to see nocturnal clouds or for those who are just curious to know them. Adrien reported at the end of May that he was seeing the start of the season for these clouds. If you are at high latitude in the Northern Hemisphere, watch for them in the coming weeks!

Bottom Line: Curiosity rover images on Mars of noctilucent clouds seen shining at night, high in the Martian sky. In addition, some first images of noctilucent clouds seen on Earth while the observation season for them begins in 2019.

Post your night cloud photo on EarthSky Community Photos

Via global society and night clouds around the world

Deborah Byrd

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