Iridescent clouds formed of ice crystals are usually found in extremely cold air above polar regions
Excited weather watchers have captured stunning images of rare “mother of pearl” clouds, which have formed high up in the atmosphere overSuch clouds tend to develop in the extremely cold air above polar regions, but were spotted on Sunday evening and Monday morning by BBC weather watchers in Aberdeenshire, the Highlands and Moray.
One BBC weather watcher called the clouds “absolutely fantastic” after photographing the spectacle at sunset. “Nearly all clouds form in the troposphere, which ranges from about 30,000 to 50,000 feet above the Earth’s surface. But nacreous clouds form higher up in the stratosphere, at about 68,500 to 100,000 feet. Because the stratosphere is so dry, temperatures have to be extremely cold, below -78C, for moisture to freeze into the ice crystals that form nacreous clouds.
Nacreous clouds are most visible during civil twilight, shortly before sunrise and after sunset, when the sun is, at most, six degrees below the horizon. Because the clouds are so high, they are still illuminated by sunlight, and appear with striking, bright colours in the surrounding darker sky.
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