a rare display of nacreous clouds was seen this week over scotland. nacreous clouds form high in the stratosphere where, given the curvature of the planet, they are illuminated by the sun when below the horizon. the stratosphere is also home to the ozone layer, and these clouds, while beautiful, can lead to the formation of holes in it.
while it’s usually too cold and dry for clouds to form in the stratosphere, these wispy nacreous clouds develop from a mixture of cooled water and nitric acid, the later of which reacts with cfc compounds released into the environment from industrial processes, causing damage to naturally occurring ozone in the atmosphere.
(click link for credit x, x, x, x, x, x. see also: circumhorizontal arcs, mammatus clouds, noctilucent clouds, lenticular clouds, asperatus clouds and more nacreous clouds)
