APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

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APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by APOD Robot » Wed Jun 08, 2022 4:05 am

Image 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.

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Ironwood

Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Ironwood » Wed Jun 08, 2022 9:56 am

What a great idea! I just remote started my SUV to assist in combatting global warming. I'll let it warm up then go drive around making cooling clouds.

Starlightasru

Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Starlightasru » Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:30 am

Perhaps modify the ship's systems to create the clouds.

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Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by rstevenson » Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:36 am

Would the reflectivity of the clouds fully offset the CO2 released by the ships' diesel engines? Is this just another example of perpetual motion-like wishful thinking?

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Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Jun 08, 2022 1:11 pm

Starlightasru wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:30 am Perhaps modify the ship's systems to create the clouds.
The clouds produced by a ship don't significantly offset the CO2 produced by the ship. The proposed geoengineering solutions produce the clouds but don't add to atmospheric CO2. Also, the aerosols produced by the ships that seed the clouds are harmful in their own right, unlike the geoengineering approach that simply uses salt.
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Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Jun 08, 2022 1:13 pm

rstevenson wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:36 am Would the reflectivity of the clouds fully offset the CO2 released by the ships' diesel engines? Is this just another example of perpetual motion-like wishful thinking?
The geoengineering proposal, of course, doesn't use technology that releases CO2 or dangerous aerosols.
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heehaw

Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by heehaw » Wed Jun 08, 2022 3:02 pm

ESPOD is very good today.

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Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by orin stepanek » Wed Jun 08, 2022 3:08 pm

ShipTracks_Terra_960.jpg
Maybe someday; man will be able to control the weather!? Maybe;
remember I said maybe; or maybe the weather will wipe us out first!
I wish it were 1950 again, when I was a boy and not wonder what the
future will bring! Que sierra sierra ! :mrgreen:
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

guest again

Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by guest again » Wed Jun 08, 2022 3:20 pm

Ann wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 5:17 am
One wonders what ships have been plying the seas of Europa?

Ann


Ice breakers?

Sa Ji Tario

Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Sa Ji Tario » Wed Jun 08, 2022 7:14 pm

When the tragedy of the US Twin Towers suspended flights for three days, a temperature difference of three degrees was found caused by the lack of aerosols left by high-altitude aircraft that returned much of the solar infrared rays to space.

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Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Jun 08, 2022 7:22 pm

Sa Ji Tario wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 7:14 pm When the tragedy of the US Twin Towers suspended flights for three days, a temperature difference of three degrees was found caused by the lack of aerosols left by high-altitude aircraft that returned much of the solar infrared rays to space.
Not globally, though. This was a regional effect.
Chris

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Sa Ji Tario

Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Sa Ji Tario » Thu Jun 09, 2022 4:18 am

Right Chris, I forgot to mention it.

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Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by florid_snow » Thu Jun 09, 2022 5:03 pm

A key phrase here is "aerosol susceptibility" because broadly speaking, there is a large contrast from land to ocean for the amount of particulate matter floating in the air - aka the aerosol concentration is much higher over land than over the ocean. So running your SUV does not cause this effect over land, it is only over the ocean where the atmosphere is typically susceptible to aerosol injection for cloud brightening. And this only really works a few days per month in different small sections of the ocean where there is the particular thermodynamic situation where a cloud might condense but does not due to a relative lack of particles.

This continues to be an active area of research, I wish this APOD had linked to a few more relevant articles, like this recent article in Science which basically claims the total susceptibility of the atmosphere is too small for this to really be a viable method to counter-act CO2 climate change.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd3980

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Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Astronymus » Thu Jun 09, 2022 8:18 pm

So this is how the microplastic ends up on Mount Everest and Antarctica.
»Only a dead Earth is a good Earth.«

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Re: APOD: Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean (2022 Jun 08)

Post by Chris Peterson » Thu Jun 09, 2022 10:50 pm

florid_snow wrote: Thu Jun 09, 2022 5:03 pm A key phrase here is "aerosol susceptibility" because broadly speaking, there is a large contrast from land to ocean for the amount of particulate matter floating in the air - aka the aerosol concentration is much higher over land than over the ocean. So running your SUV does not cause this effect over land, it is only over the ocean where the atmosphere is typically susceptible to aerosol injection for cloud brightening. And this only really works a few days per month in different small sections of the ocean where there is the particular thermodynamic situation where a cloud might condense but does not due to a relative lack of particles.

This continues to be an active area of research, I wish this APOD had linked to a few more relevant articles, like this recent article in Science which basically claims the total susceptibility of the atmosphere is too small for this to really be a viable method to counter-act CO2 climate change.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd3980
That's not what I read in that paper. It appears to say only that ship track data are a poor model for understanding the cloud response of anthropogenic aerosols. Not that clouds produced by aerosols don't have the potential to create a degree of cooling (which is not the same as counteracting climate change).
Chris

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