Magical night over Vernadsky: Ukrainian polar explorers show lunar halo and pearly clouds
18 October 2024 14:12
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The polar explorers of the Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition (UAE) at the Akademik Vernadsky station witnessed unique atmospheric phenomena – lunar halo and nighttime pearly clouds. The meteorologist of the 29th UAE, Serhiy Yakushchenko, captured these moments in a photo, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
The halo, which is formed by ice crystals in cirrus clouds, created a rainbow ring around the Moon. This phenomenon can be observed not only around sunlight, but also moonlight, as it happened over Vernadsky.
In addition, the polar explorers recorded nacreous clouds, a rare phenomenon that displays multi-coloured shimmering due to the refraction of light in ice crystals in the stratosphere. Usually, these clouds are illuminated by the sun, but this night they were illuminated by the moon, creating incredible colour effects.
This is not the first time that Ukrainian polar explorers from the Vernadsky Research Station have delighted Ukrainians with unique content from Antarctica. This year, they documented a meeting with a fin whale, found a pair of penguins that built a nest at an altitude of 300 metres, and showed how a humpback whale jumps.
