Image via NASA Earth Observatory.
NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on January 16, 2018. These straight-line cloud patterns are called ship tracks, and they’re formed via ships’ exhaust. This image is off the coast of Portugal, where ship traffic is high, and some of these tracks stretch hundreds of miles. The narrow ends of the clouds are youngest, while the broader, wavier ends are older. NASA explained how they form:
Some of the pollution particles generated by ships (especially sulfates) are soluble in water and serve as the seeds around which cloud droplets form. Clouds infused with ship exhaust have more and smaller droplets than unpolluted clouds. As a result, the light hitting the polluted clouds scatters in many directions, making them appear brighter and thicker than unpolluted marine clouds, which are typically seeded by larger, naturally occurring particles such as sea salt.
Read more about this image from NASA Earth Observatory
Bottom line: Satellite photo of ship tracks, January 16, 2018.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2DHZj78
Image via NASA Earth Observatory.
NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on January 16, 2018. These straight-line cloud patterns are called ship tracks, and they’re formed via ships’ exhaust. This image is off the coast of Portugal, where ship traffic is high, and some of these tracks stretch hundreds of miles. The narrow ends of the clouds are youngest, while the broader, wavier ends are older. NASA explained how they form:
Some of the pollution particles generated by ships (especially sulfates) are soluble in water and serve as the seeds around which cloud droplets form. Clouds infused with ship exhaust have more and smaller droplets than unpolluted clouds. As a result, the light hitting the polluted clouds scatters in many directions, making them appear brighter and thicker than unpolluted marine clouds, which are typically seeded by larger, naturally occurring particles such as sea salt.
Read more about this image from NASA Earth Observatory
Bottom line: Satellite photo of ship tracks, January 16, 2018.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2DHZj78
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire