About This Project

Noctilucent clouds are Earth's rarest clouds, forming nearly 80 km above the surface at the edge of space. This project will develop and fly an autonomous high-altitude balloon imaging system in Alaska to capture near-space observations during Arctic summer. The research will investigate whether near-space imaging can reveal fine-scale cloud structures that improve our understanding of aeronomy and mesospheric processes while advancing technologies for future science missions.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Noctilucent clouds form at altitudes of 76–85 km within the mesosphere, where climate, atmospheric chemistry, and space weather interactions can become visible. Observable only during summer at polar latitudes, they remain challenging to study due to their extreme altitude and limited observation opportunities.

Most observations are conducted from the ground or from space-based platforms such as NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission, which has significantly advanced our understanding of noctilucent clouds and their relationship to the upper atmosphere. This project asks whether near-space observations can reveal fine-scale cloud structures and variability that are difficult to resolve from ground-based observations alone.

I hypothesise that stratospheric imaging will reveal finer-scale noctilucent cloud structures than are typically observable from the ground, improving our understanding of cloud morphology and variability within the mesosphere.

What is the significance of this project?

Understanding changes in Earth’s upper atmosphere is becoming increasingly important as climate change and solar activity continue to influence atmospheric dynamics. Noctilucent clouds may provide valuable insight into these changes, acting as visible tracers of processes occurring near the edge of space.

This project contributes to both atmospheric science and autonomous systems engineering. Scientifically, it aims to capture near-space observations of noctilucent clouds during Arctic summer conditions. Technically, it advances lightweight autonomous imaging and stabilisation technologies that could support future atmospheric, Earth observation, and planetary science missions operating in extreme environments.

The project also demonstrates how low-cost, accessible near-space platforms can contribute to meaningful scientific research and public engagement with atmospheric science.

(https://science.nasa.gov/earth...)

What are the goals of the project?

The primary goal of this project is to design, build, and flight test an autonomous high-altitude balloon imaging system capable of capturing stable observations of noctilucent clouds during Arctic summer conditions in Alaska.

Specific project goals include developing an autonomous pointing and stabilisation system for near-space imaging, integrating embedded control systems and atmospheric imaging payloads, capturing high-quality imagery of noctilucent clouds from near space, testing system performance in Arctic environmental conditions, and creating an openly accessible image and observational dataset that can be shared with the broader science and education community.

By making the observations openly available, the project aims to support future atmospheric research, inspire public interest in upper-atmosphere science, and encourage broader participation in near-space exploration.