Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean
Explanation:
What are those unusual streaks?
Some images of
planet Earth
show clear bright streaks that follow the paths of ships.
Known as
ship tracks,
these low and narrow bands are caused by the
ship's engine exhaust.
Water vapor condenses around small bits of exhaust known as
aerosols,
which soon grow into floating water drops that efficiently
reflect sunlight.
Ship tracks were
first discovered in 1965 in
Earth images taken by NASA's
TIROS satellites.
Multiple
ship tracks
are visible across the
featured image that was captured in 2009 over the
Pacific Ocean by the
MODIS instrument on NASA's
Terra satellite.
Inspired by ship-tracks, some
scientists
have suggested
deploying a network of floating
buoys
in the
worlds' oceans
that spray
salt-aerosol
containing sea-water into the air so that, with the help of the wind, streams of
sunlight-reflecting
clouds
would also form.
Why do this?
These human-made clouds could
reflect
so much
sunlight they might help fight
global warming.
Today is:
World Oceans Day
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
