[The Comedian]

This is a poorly and partially-understood phenomenon, but it seems to indicate cooling of the upper atmosphere.

Today is a good day to die.
I didn't say for whom.

[The Comedian]

Signs-in-the-heavens? ping.

"Space Energy/Solar Weirdness" ping.

Ping list dealing with odd space phenomena and solar events.

FReepmail me if you want on or off

The Comedian's "Space Energy/Solar Weirdness" ping list...

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[Texas Eagle]

... it seems to indicate cooling of the upper atmosphere.

Oh, crap. We've removed too much CO2 from the atmosphere.

[silverleaf]

not good news for species that require cycles of dark and light to thrive?

[vpintheak]

I have seen them quite often. Cooling you say? Hmmm...

[B4Ranch]

Heat rises, cold drops, we are in for another ICE AGE!

[Sacajaweau]

What’s the problem?? It happens...Geez...He gets a write up for this??

[BenLurkin]

[CodeToad]

264,000 to 279,000 feet up? I didn’t know there were any ice particles that high.

[DManA]

I have a physicist friend who says these clouds are very rare in the winter and presage significant global cooling.

[RinaseaofDs]

Could be an by-product of more weather modification by the Russians and Chinese, who are pretty up-front about doing that sort of thing.

As for the US doing that sort of thing? We deny we do it. I personally think there is something to chemtrails, since what I’ve observed happening behind some of these aircraft with these unbelievable ‘contrails’ are the very same thing we were trained to spot in military chemical warfare training classes. (Pearls on a string type clouds spreading in the atmosphere as a warning, and using local wind/wx to calculate how much time you have to prepare countermeasures and protection)

Could be residue from that sort of activity. One more thing we can only guess at.

[Flag_This]

"These so-called night-shining clouds are still rare — rare enough that Matthew DeLand, who has been studying them for 11 years, has seen them only once."

That's some studying.

[Daffynition]

Clouds RULE!

[JRios1968]

These so-called night-shining clouds are still rare — rare enough that Matthew DeLand, who has been studying them for 11 years, has seen them only once.

I'll go ahead and blame Sarah Palin and the Tea Party for this.

[Vendome]

BS.

It’s Globull Warming. /s

[DuncanWaring]

For reasons not fully understood, the clouds' brightness wiggles up and down in step with solar activity, with fewer clouds forming when the sun is most active.

It's not all that "not fully understood".

High magnetic solar activity (indicated by high levels of sunspots, which we don't currently have) correlates well with low levels of clouds.

There's a book on the phenomenon, experimentally demonstrated in a laboratory, which I can't recall the title of right now, something along the lines of "Killer Stars".

[NautiNurse]

Reminds me of the shining portion of vapor trail following a twilight space shuttle launch. The white cloud was shining brightly for an eerily long time as the rest of the vapor trail dissipated.

[backwoods-engineer]

When I was a kid, I was taught these were called noctilucent clouds. I guess since nobody in public school studies Latin anymore, they had to drop that and use “night-shining.” Just doesn’t sound as cool.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Interesting. A possible harbinger of Global Cooling (TM).