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z987k said:
While I'd agree those are "night illuminated" clouds, they are not noctilucent clouds. They're not high enough, and I don't think they form that far south. Looks like typical cirrus.
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Isn't the whole meaning of a noctilucent cloud "night illuminated", and not relating at all to the cloud type? I thought it was a general term. I know the 50-70 degrees north and south of the equator thing, too. Cool picture regardless.
 
Avgirl said:
Isn't the whole meaning of a noctilucent cloud "night illuminated", and not relating at all to the cloud type? I thought it was a general term. I know the 50-70 degrees north and south of the equator thing, too. Cool picture regardless.
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No it's a cloud type. Occurring in the polar regions during the summer in the mesosphere at 45-50 miles high and composed of ice crystals.
They're usually too faint to be seen except when the sun has set where the observer is but due to the incredible height of the cloud, it still has line of sight on the sun and is reflecting it down to the observer.
 
z987k said:
While I'd agree those are "night illuminated" clouds, they are not noctilucent clouds. They're not high enough, and I don't think they form that far south. Looks like typical cirrus.
Click to expand...
Actually..."They seldom occur at lower latitudes (although there have been sightings as far south as Paris, Utah, Italy, Turkey and Spain)" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud)...given our altitude, the direction they were from our relative position (flying Seattle-Missoula, so they would have been over Canada at that altitude), and given the sun's position relative to us/the clouds...I'm going to go with they were. They have clear streaks and wave-like undulations.

But then again, I'm just an airline pilot...not a trained atmospheric scientist :rolleyes: (nor is it Alaska)
 
SurferLucas said:
Actually..."They seldom occur at lower latitudes (although there have been sightings as far south as Paris, Utah, Italy, Turkey and Spain)" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud)...given our altitude, the direction they were from our relative position (flying Seattle-Missoula, so they would have been over Canada at that altitude), and given the sun's position relative to us/the clouds...I'm going to go with they were. They have clear streaks and wave-like undulations.

But then again, I'm just an airline pilot...not a trained atmospheric scientist :rolleyes: (nor is it Alaska)
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My biggest contention is they don't look nearly high enough. Maybe it's the proximity in the photo to those layers you're mostly even with and the distance behind them makes them look lower than they are.
 
SurferLucas said:
Actually..."They seldom occur at lower latitudes (although there have been sightings as far south as Paris, Utah, Italy, Turkey and Spain)" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud)...given our altitude, the direction they were from our relative position (flying Seattle-Missoula, so they would have been over Canada at that altitude), and given the sun's position relative to us/the clouds...I'm going to go with they were. They have clear streaks and wave-like undulations.

But then again, I'm just an airline pilot...not a trained atmospheric scientist :rolleyes: (nor is it Alaska)
Click to expand...
You forgot "bless your heart."
 
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