JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Even if you laid on your back all day at JAX beach gazing up, you may never spot vibrant clouds like these at the edge of outer space.
It took NASA's resources to photograph these rare blue clouds 50 miles above Earth floating between Sweden and Canada.
A camera attached to a high-altitude balloon captured what are know as polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) over the course of five days.
PMC's can also be called noctilucent clouds and develop when ice crystals form on tiny meteor remnants.
The results make brilliant blue rippling clouds that are visible just after the Sun sets in polar regions during the summer.
These clouds are affected by what’s known as atmospheric gravity waves — caused by the convecting and uplifting of air masses, such as when air is pushed up by mountain ranges.
The goal was to understand turbulence impact on planetary waves in fluid mediums which may also improve weather forecasts.