Noctilucent clouds: modern ground-based photographic observations by a digital camera network.
Noctilucent, or "night-shining," clouds (NLCs) are a spectacular optical nighttime phenomenon that is very often neglected in the context of atmospheric optics. This paper gives a brief overview of current understanding of NLCs by providing a simple physical picture of their formation, relevant observational characteristics, and scientific challenges of NLC research. Modern ground-based photographic NLC observations, carried out in the framework of automated digital camera networks around the globe, are outlined. In particular, the obtained results refer to studies of single quasi-stationary waves in the NLC field. These waves exhibit specific propagation properties--high localization, robustness, and long lifetime--that are the essential requisites of solitary waves.
Department of Quantum Electronics, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania. audrius.dubietis@ff.vu.lt
Audrius
A
Dubietis
Peter
P
Dalin
Ričardas
R
Balčiūnas
Kazimieras
K
Černis
Nikolay
N
Pertsev
Vladimir
V
Sukhodoev
Vladimir
V
Perminov
Mark
M
Zalcik
Alexander
A
Zadorozhny
Martin
M
Connors
Ian
I
Schofield
Tom
T
McEwan
Iain
I
McEachran
Soeren
S
Frandsen
Ole
O
Hansen
Holger
H
Andersen
Jesper
J
Grønne
Dmitry
D
Melnikov
Alexander
A
Manevich
Vitaly
V
Romejko