"Frozen lightning" over Scotland

The people of Scotland witnessed a gorgeous silvery clouds. "It was one of the most beautiful phenomena I have ever seen. The bright blue clouds in a darkening sky is like frozen lightning," said Giuseppe Petricca, who took this photo from the island of Lewis.

Clouds over Scotland was distinguished by its intensity and subtle undulating structure. Orbital NASA satellite AIM also fixed them and confirmed that noctilucent clouds, formed at the boundary of space, now on their way from the Arctic to Europe and Canada.

"Structures that seem unchanged, formed at a temperature of one hundred degrees below zero, with the participation of meteoric dust as a germ. The colors that shimmer from pure white to electric blue, made a spectacle at sunset is truly fantastic," said Petricca.

Summer — the season of noctilucent clouds, also called polar mesospheric clouds (polar mesospheric clouds, PMC) and luminous night clouds (noctilucent clouds, NLC). They are formed when water vapor rises into the upper atmosphere and the particles concentrated around "meteor smoke." High-altitude winds in the mesosphere collect the resulting crystals in intricate patterns shining in the night sky.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»