The dark side of nacreous clouds with Dr Simon Lee

In December 2023 social platforms lit up with images of nacreous clouds. One evening in December 2023 these clouds, also known as mother of pearl clouds, were visible across the UK and Northern Europe. In this episode we welcome back stratospheric expert Dr Simon Lee to find out why these clouds were seen so far south and piece together the relationship between the displacement of the polar vortex while also learning there is a dark side to nacreous clouds. 

Dr. Lee talks about how sudden stratospheric warming was first observed in the 1950’s by scientists in Berlin. The scientists at the time referred to this as ‘explosive warming of the winter time stratosphere’. Although 70 years has passed there is still so much to learn about the interaction of the stratosphere and the trop ...