COLLECTION NAME:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Record
Title:
Contrail Clutter over Georgia
Explanation:
Artificial clouds made by humans may become so common they change the Earth's climate. The long thin cloud streaks that dominate the above satellite photograph [ http://epod.usra.ed… ] of Georgia [ http://www.state.ga… ] are contrails [ http://en.wikipedia… ], cirrus clouds [ http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/cldtyp/hgh/crs.rxml ] created by airplanes. The exhaust of an airplane engine can create a contrail [ http://antwrp.gsfc.… ] by saturating the surrounding air with extra moisture. The wings of a plane can similarly create contrails [ http://web.mit.edu/… ] by dropping the temperature and causing small ice-crystals to form. Contrails have become more than an oddity - they may be significantly increasing the cloudiness [ http://www.nasa.gov… ] of Earth, reflecting sunlight back into space by day, and heat radiation [ http://www.elmhurst… ] back to Earth even at night. The effect on climate is a topic of much research [ http://www.agu.org/… ]. You can help NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov… ] measure the actual abundance of contrails by participating in a contrail [ http://asd-www.larc… ] counting exercise that runs over the next two days.
Credit and Copyright:
MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.n… ], Terra Satellite [ http://terra.nasa.g… ], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/ ]
facet_where:
Georgia
facet_what:
DMSP
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap041013
