Antarctica's Mother-Of-Pearl Clouds

Technically known as polar stratospheric clouds, or nacreous clouds, are rare spectacles in Nature.

The clouds only occur at high polar latitudes in winter, requiring temperatures less than minus 176 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 80 degrees Celsius). A weather balloon measured temperatures at minus 189 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 87 degrees Celsius) on the day the photos were taken.

Resembling airborne mother-of-pearl shells, the clouds are produced when fading light at sunset passes through water-ice crystals blown along a strong jet of stratospheric air more than six miles above the ground.

"You have to be in the right part of the world in winter, and have the sun just below your horizon to see them," Australian Antarctic Division atmospheric scientist Andrew Klekociuk said.

Link to Atmospheric Optics' Nacreous Clouds Gallery
Tags: Antarctica polar stratospheric clouds psc nacreous clouds nature weather winter ozone holes earth sunset

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