﻿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2022 June 8 [2]The featured image ship tracks over the Pacific Ocean as captured by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. The tracks appear as white streaks over the blue ocean. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]Terra, [5]MODIS; Text: [6]Raymond Shaw ([7]MTU) Explanation: What are those unusual streaks? Some images of [8]planet Earth show clear bright streaks that follow the paths of ships. Known as [9]ship tracks, these low and narrow bands are caused by the [10]ship's engine exhaust. [11]Water vapor condenses around small bits of exhaust known as [12]aerosols, which soon grow into floating water drops that efficiently [13]reflect sunlight. Ship tracks were [14]first discovered in 1965 in [15]Earth images taken by NASA's [16]TIROS satellites. Multiple [17]ship tracks are visible across the [18]featured image that was captured in 2009 over the [19]Pacific Ocean by the [20]MODIS instrument on NASA's [21]Terra satellite. Inspired by ship-tracks, some [22]scientists have suggested deploying a network of floating [23]buoys in the [24]worlds' oceans that spray [25]salt-aerosol containing sea-water into the air so that, with the help of the wind, streams of [26]sunlight-reflecting [27]clouds would also form. [28]Why do this? These human-made clouds could [29]reflect so much [30]sunlight they might help fight [31]global warming. Today is: [32]World Oceans Day Tomorrow's picture: open space __________________________________________________________________ [33]< | [34]Archive | [35]Submissions | [36]Index | [37]Search | [38]Calendar | [39]RSS | [40]Education | [41]About APOD | [42]Discuss | [43]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [44]Robert Nemiroff ([45]MTU) & [46]Jerry Bonnell ([47]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [48]Specific rights apply. [49]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [50]ASD at [51]NASA / [52]GSFC & [53]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2206/ShipTracks_Terra_4892.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://terra.nasa.gov/about 5. https://terra.nasa.gov/about/terra-instruments/modis 6. https://www.mtu.edu/physics/department/faculty/shaw/ 7. https://www.mtu.edu/physics/ 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220206.html 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_tracks 10. https://youtu.be/SSo0fb0JQZA 11. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MYDAL2_M_SKY_WV 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerosol 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220327.html 14. https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atsc/23/6/1520-0469_1966_023_0778_acl_2_0_co_2.xml 15. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images 16. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/launch-of-tiros-1-worlds-1st-weather-satellite-this-week-in-goddard-history-march-31-april-6 17. http://www.sciencebits.com/ship_tracks 18. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/37455/ship-tracks-south-of-alaska 19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderate_Resolution_Imaging_Spectroradiometer 21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_(satellite) 22. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2012.0086 23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoy 24. https://www.nasa.gov/specials/ocean-worlds/ 25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_salt_aerosol 26. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_cloud_brightening 27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_stratocumulus 28. https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/532826/Blog_Images/Dogs-tilting-their-heads.jpg 29. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25762/reflecting-sunlight-recommendations-for-solar-geoengineering-research-and-research-governance 30. https://csl.noaa.gov/research/erb/ 31. https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/ 32. https://oceanic.global/projects/united-nations-world-oceans-day-2022/ 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220607.html 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 37. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 39. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 40. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 41. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 42. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220608 43. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220609.html 44. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 45. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 46. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 47. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 48. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 49. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 50. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 51. https://www.nasa.gov/ 52. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 53. http://www.mtu.edu/