Lake Superior ship tracks
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, left), Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm, center) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, right) images, with hourly surface wind barbs plotted in yellow [click to play animation]
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) revealed the presence of ship tracks across Lake Superior on 16 November 2017. Aerosols from the exhaust of ships cause a “cloud seeding effect”, which results in a higher concentration of smaller cloud droplets compared to the surrounding unperturbed clouds. These smaller cloud droplets are more effective reflectors of sunlight, resulting in a brighter white signature on the Snow/Ice imagery and a warmer (darker gray) signature on the Shortwave Infrared imagery.
A view of the entire lake — using similar Visible, Snow/Ice and Shortwave Infrared images from the Terra MODIS instrument — is shown below. In addition to the ship tracks, plumes from power plants and/or industrial sites can be seen in southern Ontario, streaming southward near Thunder Bay (station identifier CYQT) and southwestward near Upsala (CWDV); another plume was evident in northeastern Wisconsin, to the southeast of Eagle River (KEGV).
Terra MODIS Visible (0.65 µm), Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.7 µm) images [click to enlarge]