NASA balloon captures amazing images of blue electric clouds

NASA has published photographs of incredible "electric blue clouds", which were taken by a space agency balloon 50 miles above the surface of the Earth.

These nocturnal clouds, or polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs), are located at the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. The new images, from NASA's PMC Turbo mission, show rippling clouds "brilliant blue" with incredible detail.

PMCs appear about 50 miles above the poles in summer. They form ice crystals on the remains of meteors in the upper atmosphere and the blue ripples can be seen just after sunset in the polar regions.

Scientists want to study PMCs because they are affected by atmospheric gravitational waves caused by convection and lifting of the air. These waves are involved in the transfer of energy from the lower atmosphere to the mesosphere, an area above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere, at about 30 and 50 miles altitude.

The PMC project consisted of sending a balloon into the atmosphere to study these clouds for five days. The balloon traveled from its launch site in Sweden across the Arctic to Canada.

"This is the first time we are able to visualize the flow of energy from larger gravity waves toward lower flow instabilities and lower turbulence in the upper atmosphere," he said. Dave Fritts, lead investigator of the mission. "At these altitudes, you can literally see the gravity waves breaking – like the waves of the ocean on the beach – and the cascades towards turbulence.

Electric blue clouds seen from the ISS. NASA / ISS / Don Pettit

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Scientists have just begun to analyze PMC Turbo's photos – six million high-resolution images. In addition to giving a better idea of ​​what is happening in the atmosphere, the results should allow researchers to improve weather forecasts. "From what we've seen so far, we expect to have a truly spectacular data set of this mission," Fritts said. "Our cameras have probably been able to capture some really interesting events and we hope they will provide new insights into these complex dynamics."

Scientists working on the project were not immediately available for comment.

For many years, CMPs were a puzzle. In 2003, scientists aboard the International Space Station observed "bright electric blue" clouds, releasing images showing them 250 miles above the surface of the Earth. At the time, researchers did not know whether they were caused by the dust of space or by global warming.

PMCs were first observed in 1885, two years after a huge eruption on Indonesian volcano Krakatoa. After sunset, skywatcher T. W. Backhouse noticed light blue electric filaments shining in the sky. These observations led scientists to believe that clouds were a kind of volcanic ash.