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A sprite over Southeast Asia as seen from space.. Sprites or red sprites are large-scale electric discharges that occur in the mesosphere, high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky.
The clouds do not become that color; they are reflecting long and unscattered rays of sunlight, which are predominant at those hours. The effect is much like if a person were to shine a red spotlight on a white sheet. In combination with large, mature thunderheads this can produce blood-red clouds.
Whether hues of green, red, blue and pink dance about in the sky is due to the altitude in which the collisions occur, as well as the composition and density of the atmosphere at the time.
The common phrase "red sky at morning" is a line from an ancient rhyme often repeated with variants by mariners [1] and others: Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
Whether hues of green, red, blue and even pink dance about in the sky depends on the altitude where the collisions occur, as well as the composition and density of the atmosphere at the time. Why ...
During broad daylight, the sky is blue due to Rayleigh scattering, while around sunrise or sunset, and especially during twilight, absorption of irradiation by ozone helps maintain blue color in the evening sky. At sunrise or sunset, tangentially incident solar rays illuminate clouds with orange to red hues.
It looked bright red because the hydrogen in the sun was emitting a reddish light at high temperatures, and some of this light may become evident in the clouds at the beginning and end of totality."
Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), or night shining clouds, [1] are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere of Earth. When viewed from space, they are called polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) , detectable as a diffuse scattering layer of water ice crystals near the summer polar mesopause .