Sometimes it's night on the ground but day in the air. As the Earth rotates to eclipse the Sun,
sunset rises upfrom the ground. Therefore, at sunset on the ground, sunlight still shines on
clouds above. Under
usual circumstances, a pretty sunset might be visible, but unusual
noctilucent clouds float so high up they can be seen well after dark. Normally too dim to be seen,
they may become visible just after sunset during the summer when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon.
Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds and are known more technically as
polar mesospheric clouds. Featured here as they appeared in early August, a network of blue noctilucent clouds was captured in the distant sky above a field of green grass near
Linköping,
Sweden, with trees in
stark silhouette across the horizon. Much about
noctilucent clouds has been
discovered only in the past two decades, while
how they form and evolve remains a topic of
active research.