On the colour of noctilucent clouds

Abstract

Abstract. The high-latitude phenomenon of noctilucent clouds (NLCs) is characterised by a silvery-blue or pale blue colour. In this study, we employ the radiative transfer model SCIATRAN to simulate spectra of solar radiation scattered by NLCs for a ground-based observer and assuming spherical NLC particles. To determine the resulting colours of NLCs in an objective way, the CIE (International Commission on Illumination) colour matching functions and chromaticity values are used. Different processes and parameters potentially affecting the colour of NLCs are investigated, i.e., the size of the NLC particles, the abundance of middle atmospheric O3 and the importance of multiply scattered solar radiation. We affirm previous research indicating that solar radiation absorption in the O3 Chappuis bands can have a significant effect on the colour of the NLCs. A new result of this study is that for sufficiently large NLC optical depths and for specific viewing geometries, O3 plays only a minor role for the blueish colour of NLCs. The simulations also show that the size of the NLC particles affects the colour of the clouds. Cloud particles of unrealistically large sizes can lead to a reddish colour. Furthermore, the simulations show that the contribution of multiple scattering to the total scattering is only of minor importance, providing additional justification for the earlier studies on this topic, which were all based on the single scattering approximation.

Is it possible to estimate aerosol optical depth from historic colour paintings?

“…In the present work, SCIATRAN was run in the approximate spherical mode, where the contribution of single scattering is calculated in a fully spherical geometry, while an approximation is employed to account for the multiple scattering contribution (Rozanov et al, 2000). As discussed by Lange et al (2022) this approximation is fully sufficient to analyze the colors of the horizon area during twilight. Both the sun-ward near-horizon radiances and the diffuse downward fluxes as analyzed by Zerefos et al (2007) were modeled with SCIATRAN.…”