Many people photographed a strange cloud over Tampa Bay early in the morning hours on Friday, April 23, after a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. This is the second time in the last month-and-a-half that this rare event occurred.

What You Need To Know

  • Another noctilucent cloud was visible over Tampa Bay on Friday morning

  • These clouds form in the mesosphere located 30-50 miles above the surface

  • Water vapor from the SpaceX launch Friday morning froze into ice crystals

  • Because of the curvature of Earth, sunlight reaches these altitudes sooner than the Earth's surface
Courtesy- Wanda Moratrilli from Sand Key

 

Courtesy- Anita Davis-Crumbley from Brandon

 

Courtesy Iris Moon from St. Petersburg
Courtesy: Paul Clark from Tampa Airport

Many people all over Tampa Bay saw these twisted clouds illuminate the morning sky well before sunrise. These clouds look similar to cirrus clouds which typically have ice crystals in them, but the difference is these clouds are hundreds of thousands of feet above the Earth's surface.

What many of you saw Friday morning are called noctilucent clouds, which are located between 30 to 50 miles above the Earth's surface. 

Courtesy: Samuli Kaski from Clearwater

These clouds form in the mesosphere layer of the atmosphere, at a higher level than regular cirrus clouds. At this altitude, our cloud could pick up the sunlight from around the curvature of the earth before sunrise reached us on the ground. So it appeared to produce light.  

The SpaceX rocket and booster both produced a condensation trail high in the atmoshere after the launch. It quickly froze in the cold air. The high-altitude winds twisted the ice-crystal cloud that the rocket created. Even after the rocket disappeared from sight, the cloud lingered. So by 6:30 am, before sunrise, sunlight reached this cloud illuminating it, making it a noctilucent cloud.

Some pictures even show bright colors to the cloud. This is because the ice crystals refract the sunlight, separating the colors like a rainbow. This can happen when the original water vapor droplets that became ice crystals are a very uniform size. We call the color iridescence.

A similar cloud was seen in the Tampa Bay area in March after an early morning rockey launch. People on the other side of the state also saw a noctilucent cloud over Orlando in 2009 after a SpaceX rocket launch. We have been lucky to see this twice from the Tampa Bay area and maybe will again. 

Next time there is a rocket launch one to two hours before sunrise or after sunset, with clear skies, keep looking up. You may just see this rare colorful cloud in the sky.