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A Spectacular, Autumnal Equinox, Post-Sunset Display - Updated.
- Sep 23, 2009
Sept. 7, 2010, Update: Further research (courtesy Atmospheric Optics) suggests that these are more likely crepuscular rays--although very unusual. If anyone is an authority on this, please email me at info "at" bechter.com.
About ninety minutes before the moment of autumnal equinox on Tuesday, September 22, and about 34 minutes after sunset we were treated to a spectacular display in the western sky. So far unverified by anyone with the credentials to label it as such, my suspicion is that what was visible from about 7:42 PM and lasting about 10 minutes was a noctilucent cloud formation. In the 5 years that this particular web camera has been in operation, I've not seen this before. Nor can I recall ever seeing something quite like this with my own eyes.
Noctilucent Clouds? Web Cam Image
As an amateur, mostly self-educated atmospheric scientist, I am wholly unqualified to judge. But, based upon what I have read?NASA and Wikipedia have some interesting and informative articles on the subject of noctilucent clouds, it appears to me that is what we saw.
I have made the original web cam image series available at http://image.bechter.com/wx2/5/index.html as well as a time-lapse mpeg video of the sequence (with apologies for the low-bandwidth speed) at http://image.bechter.com/wx2/5/noctilucent.mpg.