"Night-shining" clouds bring mystery

Signs in the heavens? Job 38:4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding,... Job 38:22-23 "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, Which I have reserved for the time of distress, For the day of war and battle? Luke 21:25-26 "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. THE DENVER POST – By Katy Human - April 3, 2007 Since their discovery 120 years ago, strangely luminescent clouds called noctilucent clouds have been creeping slowly toward the equator. Once confined to Earth's poles, the bizarre clouds have now been spotted above central Colorado, and they appear to be getting brighter and more numerous, too, said David Rusch, a University of Colorado atmospheric scientist. This month, NASA plans to launch the $110 million AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) mission to measure noctilucent clouds and the circumstances in which they form - which may be linked to climate change. The satellite will measure air temperature and pressure, moisture content and cloud dimensions. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder will control the satellite, process data and try to understand what some call the planet's most mysterious clouds. Noctilucent clouds appear only at night, when their altitude - 50 miles up in the atmosphere - lets them catch sunlight no longer visible from Earth's surface, said James Russell, an atmospheric scientist at Hampton University in Virginia, the NASA mission's principal investigator. That makes noctilucent - "night-shining" - clouds appear almost iridescent, he said. Most normal clouds are less than 10 miles up. "They're very beautiful, they look very mysterious, but aside from all that, these clouds are changing in ways we don't understand," Russell said. Researchers have many ideas about why noctilucent clouds may be growing in number and brightness, and most of them are related to global warming. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which warms Earth's surface, paradoxically cools the upper atmosphere, CU's Rusch said. Noctilucent clouds - which are made of ice crystals, not water droplets - need very cold temperatures to form, he said. In the atmosphere's coldest reaches, there's very little water vapor, a key ingredient for cloud formation, Rusch said. Observed increases in water vapor in the atmosphere - a consequence of warming - may also make it easier for the clouds to form, he said. Methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, may also be involved, said Scott Bailey, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Methane's presence can increase the amount of water in the upper atmosphere, through a complicated chemical dance. Scientists don't know enough yet to definitively call noctilucent clouds harbingers of climate change, Russell said. "But right now, we don't have another explanation," he admitted. "We don't have enough information about them. Hopefully, in this mission, we'll be able to get it." Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_5579483 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.