Noctilucent Clouds over Finland | Earth Science
Astrophotographer Matti Helin: "This was one of the best displays I've seen in the 30 years I've observed NLC's. They filled the whole sky! And they really made the night significantly less dark. These caliber displays can be seen maybe once in a decade."
At high latitudes in the summer months, iridescent clouds form in a part of the atmosphere roughly 50 to 86 kilometers (30 to 54 miles) above the surface of our planet. Their high altitude allows them to reflect sunlight after the Sun has set. These are called noctilucent or polar mesospheric clouds.
Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), or night shining clouds are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere. They consist of ice crystals and from the ground are only visible during astronomical twilight. Noctilucent roughly means "night shining" in Latin. They are most often observed during the summer months from latitudes between ±50° and ±70°. Too faint to be seen in daylight, they are visible only when the observer and the lower layers of the atmosphere are in Earth's shadow while these very high clouds are still in sunlight. Recent studies suggest that increased atmospheric methane emissions produce additional water vapor through chemical reactions once the methane molecules reach the mesosphere—creating, or reinforcing existing, noctilucent clouds.
Finland is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia.
Location: Southwest Finland
Matti's website: https://mattihelin.kuvat.fi/Kuvat
Release Date: July 17, 2026
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