This photo is not that of a sunset but actually of a SUNRISE! Weird, no? How come is the sky blue and not colored in different shades of orange, yellow, red and purple?
The sunrise sky is electric-blue because of bright bands of noctilucent clouds zig-zagging across the twilight sky over the city of Yaroslavl.
Amazing no? When sunlight hits the tiny ice crystals that make up noctilucent clouds, they glow electric blue and transform an actually normal sunset in this eerie electric-blue event, into something unforgettable and unexpected, into a dream or better said a wonderland. I find these clouds just fantastic.
This blue sunrise (larger picture in link) is even more magic when you look at its reflection in the water.
Noctilucent are Earth’s highest clouds and are thought to form from “meteor smoke” at 83 km above Earth’s surface. Within July 2014, they have been regularly spotted across northern Europe.
Although the natural habitat of noctilucent clouds is the Arctic Circle, they have migrated southwards in recent years. Their formation and their migrations remain a mystery to scientists.
