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Re: (meteorobs) NASA Science News: Glowing-white nighttime clouds
In a message dated 6/20/03 4:26:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time, lew@upstreamdot net
writes:
<< [Editor's Note: This reminds me of some experiments they did
in the 1970s over the Everglades: but those clouds fluoresced
in shades of green and orange, as my young eyes recalled it!
Still, this could be an entertaining distraction for meteor
observers in the right region... :) -Lew Gramer] >>
Hi Lew (and everyone on the list) --
I can remember watching a variety of chemical cloud launches from the
Wallops Island facility going all the way back to March 1967 when I saw several
multi-colored clouds suddenly "pop" over in our southern sky about an hour
after local sundown. With a touch of nostalgia I look forward to the upcoming
launches, (which seemed to occur more frequently during the 1960's and '70s).
Bluish-green colored clouds are produced by barium. I've also seen
pinkish clouds; I "believe" they are caused by the chemical lithium. The white
clouds (which will be produced by the forthcoming rocket launches) are produced
by trimethylalluminum or "TMA."
True story: Back in January 1975, there was a Wallops experiment that
produced a circular-shaped barium cloud that persisted in the southern sky for
nearly 30 minutes. The cloud's appearance immediately set off a bevy of phone
calls to radio stations and police stations emanating from out of Riverhead
(Long Island), New York, from people who thought the strange cloud was a UFO. It
seems that at precisely the same moment when the cloud appeared, Riverhead
suffered a power brownout and was temporarily plunged into darkness; those who
headed outside and looked up apparently thought that the strange glowing cloud
was an alien spaceship that was "drawing out" their electricity! :)
-- joe rao
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