Photo Agency - Astronomy - Space - Nature

> Earth from space gallerie

SlideShow Image 1502 / 2753

Earth's atmosphere, noctilucent clouds and Moon

auteur: Nasa/Novapix

référence: t-nua09-00075

Image Size 300 DPI: 52 * 34 cm

Noctilucent clouds are very high clouds that look like cirrus clouds, but are much higher (75-90 km above the Earth's surface) than clouds that we observe every day. They are optically thin and can only be observed during twilight hours, when the sun is just below the horizon and only shines on the uppermost atmosphere. In this image, the limb of the Earth at the bottom transitions into the orange-colored troposphere, the lowest and most dense portion of the Earth's atmosphere. The troposphere ends abruptly at the tropopause, which appears in the image as the sharp boundary between the orange- and blue- colored atmosphere. The silvery-blue noctilucent clouds are far above this boundary. This image was taken July 27, 2003 when the International Space Station was over central Asia. June and July is the season for noctilucent clouds in the northern hemisphere"they form in the polar mesosphere, generally above 50 degrees latitude.

Keywords for this photo:

2003 - ATMOSPHERE - CLOUD - CRESCENT - EARTH - EARTH FROM SPACE - EXPEDITION 7 - HORIZON - LIMB - METEOROLOGY - MOON - NOCTILUCENT CLOUD - POSTER -