A rare and spectacular cloud formation appeared at the end of the polar night at Australia Antarctica . These so-called nacreous clouds were situated high in the stratosphere, some 20km above the ground, and indicate extremely cold temperatures in the rarefied atmosphere.
The weather balloon measured temperatures down to -87˚C in the vicinity of the cloud layer. That’s about as cold as the lowest temperatures ever recorded on the surface of the Earth. Amazingly, the winds at this height were blowing at nearly 230 kilometres per hour. Clouds this spectacular are seldom seen.
Our nearest star, the Sun, from a distance of 150,000,000 kilometres, provides us with light and warmth and from time to time a magnificent nighttime ‘laser light’ show. Well, not quite a laser light show, but something on a much grander scale. The Southern Aurora, Southern Lights or Aurora Australis are term used to describe the displays we see in out southern skies when the sun has had a particularly bad day!
Images from a frozen land...
Reference: This Tasmania
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