Mother-of-pearl clouds in Finland
A period of westerly tropospheric flows in Scandinavia is continuing to provide occasions of Mother-of-pearl (MoP) clouds to Finnish observers. Several MoP displays have been observed just before the Christmas at different locations, in particular in Central and Northern parts of Finland, but also at the Southern coast. The photograph taken by Mauri Laitinen in Kuopio, Eastern Finland, shows the beautifully coloured details of the afternoon display of 23rd December.
MoP clouds are seen a number of times each winter in Finland, but displays as bright as this one are fairly rare.
Usually the MoP clouds are related to stratospheric temperature colder than -80°C.
Author: Reima Eresmaa
Posted on May 14, 2011, in coronae and iridescence, observations, polar stratospheric clouds and tagged mother-of-pearl-clouds, polar stratospheric clouds. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Atmospheric Phenomena 
Claudia Hinz said…
wunderful picture! I””m very impressive. Thanks for post it!
Best wishes
Claudia
Anonymous said…
Hi, nice picture indeed. I saw in the morning of the 20th of december another mother of pearl cloud, looking south-east from the train between Stockholm and Borlänge, middle of Sweden. It was small but shined in the orange dawn light.
Timo said…
I photographed these MoP clouds on December the 23rd at 9:55 AM in Nurmo, Western Finland:
http://tsalo.blogspot.com/2006/12/korkeuksissa-junani-saapui-seinjoen.html
I missed the best display (with more bright cloud patches and darker skies) I wittnessed soon after arriving at the nearby Seinäjoki railway station at 9:19 (according to the schedule).
Mika Aho said…
Here is a few links to my and my friend pictures of Mother Of Pearls (or Nacreous Clouds). These are photographed 23rd Of December 2006, Finland.
Mika Aho:
http://ahomi.smugmug.com/gallery/2347749#122884415
Vesa Virtanen:
http://ahomi.smugmug.com/gallery/2348082#122899438
Claudia Hinz said…
Mika, thanks for the links with the wunderful pictures. Unfortunately we observer in Middle European couldn””t see never such wunderful phenomena!
Anonymous said…
In the winter of 2002 (dec.23th) we saw in Kiruna (Sweden) lotst of these clouds. We actually went to see the aurora borealis (northern light) but we saw this instead. The mayor of Kiruna told us these clouds were at 4km hight at a temperature of minus 70degrees celcius,and reallt rare to see.If have relly nice photos of them!