Noctilucent clouds, also known as night-shining clouds, are rare, high-altitude clouds that appear as electric blue or silvery wisps in the night sky, typically during summer months at higher latitudes. They form in the mesosphere, Earth’s third layer of the atmosphere, at altitudes between 47-53 miles (75-85 kilometers) above the surface, making them the highest clouds in our atmosphere. Their visibility depends on specific conditions, primarily low temperatures in the mesosphere during summer, allowing water vapor to freeze onto dust particles and reflect sunlight.
* For us to see them, the sun must be below the horizon but still high enough to illuminate these high-altitude clouds.
* Appearance:
They often appear as faint, silvery or bluish bands or patches, sometimes resembling cirrus clouds
Music Cue:
The Noctilucent Chant
(Call and Response)
In your darkest dark, clouds at their highest point can reflect a future and far-off, beyond-the-horizon dawn.
Perhaps, in your moonless darkness, remote and afloat so far above the city lights, you reflect light from far off to those below...
Leader: Breathe once, shoulders soften.
Response: We breathe, we loosen, we listen.
Leader: Breathe twice, the tide rises.
Response: We rise, we release, we rest.
Leader: Breathe thrice, the stars scatter.
Response: We see, we sense, we still.
Leader: Rise, rise, rise...beyond the troposphere.
Response: We...ascend.
Leader: Rise, rise, rise...beyond the stratosphere.
Response: We...ascend.
Leader: Rise, rise, rise...into the mesosphere.
Response: We...arrive.
Leader: Here, the night‑shining clouds float in the dark sea of night.
Response: Fragile, silver, electric blue.
Leader: Dust becomes light.
Response: Struggle becomes cloud.
Leader: Only in twilight do noctilucent clouds appear.
Response: The Sun has vanished, yet light - somehow - remains.
Leader: Turn inward, feel your shadow.
Response: We feel this weight, we feel this dark.
Leader: Turn inward, feel your shadows.
Response: We feel this weight, we feel this dark.
Leader: Turn inward, feel all shadow.
Response: We feel all weight, we feel every dark.
Leader: Know that this dark is but a part of our larger truth.
Response: We know the dark can be future’s firm foundation.
Leader: Know your turmoil, your turbulence is motion, is change.
Response: We know our changes can cast light for others, can change others.
Leader: You are altitude.
Response: We are altitude.
Leader: You are resilience.
Response: We are resilience.
Leader: You are where light gathers.
Response: We are where light gathers.
Leader: You are altitude.
Response: We are altitude.
Leader: You are resilience.
Response: We are resilience.
Leader: You are where light gathers.
Response: We are where light gathers.
Leader: Exhale, let the darkness deepen.
Response: Even unseen, we reflect.
Leader: Even dim, you illuminate.
Response: Even dim, we illuminate.
Leader: Even dim, you illuminate.
Response: Even dim, we illuminate.
Leader: Even dim, you illuminate.
Response: Even dim, we illuminate.
Leader: Rest here.
Response: We rest.
Leader: Even in deepest night, a far, unseen Sun reaches.
Response: And we, already, are its light.
Together: And we, already, are its light.
Together: And we, already, are its light.
Thank you.
