Notes on historical aspects on the earliest known observations of noctilucent clouds

P Dalin,V Romejko,N Pertsev

doi:10.5194/hgss-3-87-2012

Abstract

Abstract. The present paper considers historical aspects of the earliest known observations of noctilucent clouds (NLCs). The 1884 and 1885 are discussed by considering important historical citations by the pioneers of the earliest known observations of noctilucent clouds. For the first time in NLC studies, we consider seven major volcanic eruptions: Laki in 1783, Mount St. Helens in 1800, Tambora in 1815, Galunggung in 1822, Cosigüina in 1835, Shiveluch in 1854 and Askja in 1875. These all preceded the catastrophic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, which despite having a lesser magnitude than Tambora in 1815, had pronounced effects on the atmosphere. These eruptions represent possible triggers for the appearance of NLCs. For the first time, we publish an unknown, in English-speaking literature, historical fact on the first determinations of the altitude of noctilucent clouds made by two Russian astronomers V. K. Tseraskii and A. A. Belopolskii on 26 June 1885, who managed to infer the altitude of the clouds in the range of 73–83 km, that is, for the first time, demonstrating the possible existence of the clouds at great altitudes in the Earth's atmosphere. Moreover, V. K. Tseraskii was the first observer to photograph noctilucent clouds in 1885 or 1886, which is 1–2 yr before the German astronomer O. Jesse, who owns the first published images of noctilucent clouds. The photographs made by V. K. Tseraskii, unfortunately, did not reach us.

Highlights

Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), or night luminous clouds, are the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere, occurring in the mesopause at an altitude range of 80–85 km
Noctilucent clouds are composed of water ice crystals of 30–100 nm in radius that scatter a sufficient amount of sunlight and NLCs are readily seen against the dark twilight sky from May until September (Gadsden and Schroder, 1989)
The history of the first observations of NLCs is well described in the canonical books by Bronsten and Grishin (1970) and by Gadsden and Schroder (1989), and we refer the interested reader to these sources

Summary

Introduction

Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), or night luminous clouds, are the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere, occurring in the mesopause at an altitude range of 80–85 km. These silvery-bluish clouds express a brilliant night-time optical phenomenon during the summer months at mid- and high latitudes. We limited our study to regarding the volcanic activity from 1783 until 1883, which is the time interval before the great Krakatoa eruption and not too far from this event, in the hope that it will be possible, for other researchers, to find interesting notes on atmospheric phenomena similar to night luminous clouds in astronomical archives for a relatively modern epoch

Was the Krakatoa eruption the only trigger for noctilucent clouds?

The year of the earliest known observations of noctilucent clouds

Conclusions

Further research