“The world’s rarest clouds” caught in the early morning sky over the San Francisco Bay Area as scientists claim the increase in strange cloud sightings could be linked to a large number of rocket launches

Night clouds – the world’s rarest clouds – appeared over San Francisco Bay in the early hours of Friday, just days after another SpaceX rocket launch.

Rain Hayes, a local photographer, spotted clouds sailing over Oakland’s Lake Merritt around 6:30 a.m. two days ago, before later posting footage of the rare sighting on social media.

“Strange clear cloud over Lake Meritt this morning at the end of astronomical twilight,” she wrote, also notifying the regional office of the National Weather Service.

“Great capture of what appears to be a nocturnal cloud over the SF Bay Area this morning!” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in response to Hayes’ photo.

Some scientists believe the increase in nocturnal clouds may be due to excess water vapor in the atmosphere from rocket launches. A launch was organized by Space X on Friday to launch a Falcon 9 rocket into space

UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain called nocturnal clouds “very rare” and said they form about 50 miles up in the Mosesphere

“Such clouds are very rare at this latitude and even in winter, and are the highest and driest clouds on earth, forming in the mesosphere at about 50 miles (!) altitude. Wow!’

The National Weather Service finally confirmed that night clouds were present in the Bay before dawn and that their passage was somewhat unusual.

Night clouds are usually only found at the ends of the earth: at the north and south poles. In the US they are usually found on the West Coast and only in the Pacific Northwest.

Also known as polar mesospheric clouds, nocturnal clouds form between 47 and 53 miles above Earth’s surface (76 to 85 km), according to NASA.

Here, atmospheric circulation pushes up air, which then expands and cools.

Water and vapor are trapped in the clouds, freeze into ice crystals and form meteoric dust.

Noctilucent clouds, or noctilucent clouds, typically form in late spring and early summer as the lower atmosphere warms. In the picture: nocturnal clouds in Sweden in 2020

Noctilucent “Noctilucent” clouds over Lancashire, UK in 2019. Sightings of this particular type of cloud have increased over the past decade, scientists say

The clouds are also littered with debris from decomposing meteors, giving them a “shocking” blue hue as they reflect sunlight. They typically form in late spring and early summer as the lower atmosphere warms.

Night clouds can even be seen from space, as astronauts from the International Space Station have previously shared photos of the phenomenon.

In July, DailyMail.com reported sightings in parts of the US, Canada and Europe over a weekend.

There is a belief that climate change also contributes to their development and even allows them to be seen at latitudes that have never been seen before.

In 2019, for example, they were seen as far away as Joshua Tree, California, suggesting that with more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, more water vapor is available to form the glowing clouds.

Cora Randall, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, told the Washington Post that the increase in cloud cover could be due to excess water vapor in the atmosphere from rocket launches.

Night clouds can even be seen from space, but usually only form at the North or South Pole

On Friday in December, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. On board were two O3B mPOWER communications satellites for SES Luxembourg

On Friday, a Space X Falcon 9 rocket launched the SWOT water observation satellite for NASA from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Space X launched a new Falcon 9 rocket for the 15th time in a calendar year on Saturday.

Another study suggests that the occurrence of nocturnal clouds varies from year to year and even decade to decade, but that they have generally become “significantly” more visible.

Meanwhile, nocturnal clouds were first described in the mid-19th century after the eruption of Krakatoa.

Volcanic ash spread through the atmosphere, making for brilliant sunsets around the world and leading to the first known sightings of NLCs.

At first people thought it was a side effect of the volcano, but long after Krakatoa’s ash settled, the thin, glowing clouds lingered.