Noctilucent Cloud by The Chromatics

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Image of sunrise over earthIt’s not often one has an opportunity to hear both noctilucent cloud and mesospheric in the same song, but the highly educational and always entertaining Chromatics have provided us an opportunity to do so. The Chromatics ( http://thechromatics.com) have been sharing their particular brand of a cappella for years around the Washington DC area and made a successful foray into musical science with their CD AstroCappella 2.0? (http://astrocappella.com). As the group is made up of astro-physicists (with an engineer, an architect, and a computer whiz to round it out) their science is solid and their ability to construct songs equally educational and compelling is an entertainment for their listeners. When NASA commissioned the group to come up with a song in support of the AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesophere) mission, the group reached new heights of science-musical brilliance with the song Noctilucent Cloud. Noctilucent clouds are thin, high clouds over the poles which appear to be forming in lower latitudes than ever before. It is thought that the changes in the clouds appearance and formation signify a change in the Earth’s atmosphere and possibly a direct result of human-induced global warming. The AIM mission, an in-depth study of the life-cycle of the clouds, hopes to answer some of the questions about why we are witnessing these changes and what implications that has for Earth and its atmosphere. NASA released a video of The Chromatic’s tribute to the mission on YouTube which is highly recommended viewing at http://youtube.com/watch?v=-xF2vSKINK0; and the lyrics and sound file are also on AstroCappella’s webpage at http://www.astrocappella.com/aim.shtml.