Nacreous clouds, sometimes called mother-of-pearl clouds, are rare but once seen are never forgotten. They are mostly visible within two hours after sunset or before dawn when they blaze unbelievably bright with vivid and slowly shifting iridescent colours. They are filmy sheets slowly curling and uncurling, stretching and contracting in the semi-dark sky. Compared with dark scudding low altitude clouds that might be present, nacreous clouds stand majestically in almost the same place – an indicator of their great height.
Type II clouds, which are very rarely observed in the Arctic, have cirriform and lenticular sub-types and consist of water ice only.
Something different to look at, rather than the sporadic display from the Northern Lights that we have had so far this year.