AstroCappella: Noctilucent Cloud

Words and Music by Patricia Boyd

© 2007 P. Boyd

High oh high way up above the ozone
High oh high in regions near the poles
Set against the arctic cold twilight
Casting off an irridescent light
Known for only the last century
We don't know how you have come to be

Noctilucent Cloud
That ghostly shining polar shroud
We didn't think you'd be allowed
At latitudes so low (but there you go)

Shining over a darkened sky
In mesospheric zones so high
How and why can you be?

You're a cloudy mystery (mystery...)
For the twenty-first century
Noctilucent Cloud!


High oh high on wings above the ocean
On a Pegasus, AIM launches into space
Measuring the temperature so cold
Sizing up the cosmic dust so old
How much water vapor lies within
Your layer so thin?

Noctilucent Cloud
That ghostly irridescent shroud
We didn't think you'd be allowed
At latitudes so low (how can we know?)

Shining over a darkened sky
In mesospheric zones so high
How and why can you be?

Are you tied to our destiny
Our global climate history
An atmospheric mystery
Noctilucent!


Every year you number more and more
And with time you're brighter than before
Forming in a most unlikely place
At the edge of space

Noctilucent Cloud
That ghostly irridescent shroud
We didn't think you'd be allowed
At latitudes so low (we need to know)

Glowing over the polar sky
In mesospheric zones so high
How and why can you be?

Are you tied to our destiny
Our global climate history
You're still a cloudy mystery
Noctilucent Noctilucent Noctilucent Cloud!