Thursday, October 15, 2009 Donut of the Gods

Everyone's all worked up over the Moscow Halo. From yesterday's Chicago Tribune:

Glowing Halo Cloud Over Moscow Creates UFO Buzz

3:06 p.m. CDT, October 14, 2009

MOSCOW -- This picture of a donut-shaped cloud in the skies above Moscow has the internet world buzzing.

Millions witnessed an ominous ring-shaped cloud appear over Moscow's western districts, prompting citizens to stop in their tracks to record the phenomenon and put it on YouTube.

Some think it's a UFO.

Others say it must have been photo-shopped or digitally enhanced.

But now a spokesperson with the Moscow weather department says the explanation is quite simple.

They say the formation is a cloud formed by an intrusion of arctic air and the sun shining from the west.

The Moscow weather expert is talking about noctilucent clouds, which form the edge of a cloud layer of ice crystals high in the atmosphere above the polar regions. They become visible at sunrise and sunset, when the sunlight illuminates them from below the horizon. As the spokesman states, intrusions of polar air can cause these clouds to appear in lower latitudes.

The recent surge in occurrence of this formerly rare phenomenon may be linked to global climate change. So yes, it is a harbinger of doom!