Between northern lights and glitský

Sorry, today is Sunday, but I don't have a new recipe for you. We've been enjoying our free time here in our Icelandic house this week, and in the meantime we still have visitors and go on little trips around the area, so I'm a little lacking in spirit...

But at the moment nature is really kind to us and is pampering us with beautiful northern lights and shimmering clouds in the sky during the day.

Yesterday and today we had wonderful weather, cold down to 3 °F (-16 °C), but clear and bright blue skies, clouds just on the horizon and clear at night.

Yesterday, when I wanted to cook dinner for everyone, I looked out the window again (on the way to the large refrigerator in the hallway) - and there was a wide strip of northern lights shining across the sky. The northern lights could also be seen really well with the naked eye, although not as gritty green as in the photos, but really bright and with a green shimmer.

The light then became more intense, wider, more moving... really beautiful!

And here's the view again from my kitchen window...!

At some point the intensity of the northern lights subsided a little and I was able to cook dinner in peace.

But even when I looked out the window for the first time this morning shortly before 8 a.m., the last faint northern lights could still be seen in the sky...

And today we also had “glitský” in the morning. "Glitský" are "polar stratospheric clouds", also called "nacreous clouds".

They occur in the stratosphere at altitudes above 20 km, at temperatures of around -100 to -130 °F (-75 to -90 °C). Here, the moisture is pushed from deeper layers of air into the stratosphere, and the low temperature here condenses the moisture and forms small ice crystals around the nitric acid contained in the air. The colors arise when the sunlight from the low sun is refracted in the crystals of the clouds.

It definitely looks really nice - a bit like an iridescent oil stain in the sky!

[Translated from here.]