By NASA
Data from NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, (click here) or AIM, spacecraft shows the sky over Antarctica is glowing electric blue due to the start of noctilucent, or night-shining, cloud season in the Southern Hemisphere – and an early one at that. Noctilucent clouds are Earth’s highest clouds, sandwiched between Earth and space 50 miles above the ground in a layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere. Seeded by fine debris from disintegrating meteors, these clouds of ice crystals glow a bright, shocking blue when they reflect sunlight.
April 10, 2014
..."Noctilucent clouds (click here) occur at altitudes of 50 miles above the surface -- so high that they can reflect light from the sun back down to Earth," said James Russell, an atmospheric and planetary scientist at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., and first author on the paper. "AIM and other research has shown that in order for the clouds to form, three things are needed: very cold temperatures, water vapor and meteoric dust. The meteoric dust provides sites that the water vapor can cling to until the cold temperatures cause water ice to form."
To study long-term changes in noctilucent clouds, Russell and his colleagues used historical temperature and water vapor records and a validated model to translate this data into information on the presence of the clouds. They used temperature data from 2002 to 2011 from NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics, or TIMED, mission and water vapor data from NASA's Aura mission from 2005 to 2011. They used a model previously developed by Mark Hervig, a co-author on the paper at GATS, Inc., in Driggs, Idaho.
The team tested the model by comparing its output to observations from the Osiris instrument on the Swedish Odin satellite, which launched in 2001, and the SHIMMER instrument on the U.S. Department of Defense STPSat-1 mission, both of which observed low level noctilucent clouds over various time periods during their flights. The output correlated extremely well to the actual observations, giving the team confidence in their model.
The model showed that the occurrence of noctilucent clouds had indeed increased from 2002 to 2011. These changes correlate to a decrease in temperature at the peak height where noctilucent clouds exist in the atmosphere. Temperatures at this height do not match temperatures at lower levels – indeed, the coldest place in the atmosphere is at this height during summertime over the poles – but a change there certainly does raise questions about change in the overall climate system....
So, we know water vapor is leaving Earth and has for some time which manifests as noctilucent clouds. We know there are more clouds of this water vapor being seen. We also know there are temperature changes in the atmosphere where the water is found as noctilucent clouds.
We also know there are scientists measuring the effects of the sun on that region of Earth. However, the sun has had minimums and maximums all it's existence and the measurements being pursued are interesting and important, but, for such a phenomena to be caused by the sun is a bit bizarre considering the sun, Sol, hasn't lost it's punch all these years either.
There is a better chance that the colder temperatures at the place of the noctilucent clouds is actually caused by an increase in the amount of ice crystals appearing there.
The point is Earth is losing it's water. That water normally shows up as noctilucent clouds at the altitude of 50 miles up. There are more of these clouds in the recent past since WE HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURES of Earth those same years. The possibility of this being caused by Sol is not realistic.
January 18, 2017
By Justin Gillis
Marking another milestone (click here) for a changing planet, scientists reported on Wednesday that the Earth reached its highest temperature on record in 2016, trouncing a record set only a year earlier, which beat one set in 2014. It is the first time in the modern era of global warming data that temperatures have blown past the previous record three years in a row....
Remember the out-gassing doesn't stop 50 miles up. We know now that Earth loses those molecules in the way of hydrogen molecules at higher altitudes and what remains? Oxygen. What oxygen? O3, ozone.
The out-gassing is related to a hot planet and not static electricity from the sun. We need to take our understanding AND appreciate of Earth seriously.
These entries are about appreciating "Our Common Home."
These entries are about appreciating "Our Common Home."
