Starship Asterisk*

Just Another Day on Aerosol Earth

Explanation: It was just another day on aerosol Earth. For August 23, 2018, the identification and distribution of aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere is shown in this dramatic, planet-wide digital visualization. Produced in real time, the Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS FP) model relies on a combination of Earth-observing satellite and ground-based data to calculate the presence of types of aerosols, tiny solid particles and liquid droplets, as they circulate above the entire planet. This August 23rd model shows black carbon particles in red from combustion processes, like smoke from the fires in the United States and Canada, spreading across large stretches of North America and Africa. Sea salt aerosols are in blue, swirling above threatening typhoons near South Korea and Japan, and the hurricane looming near Hawaii. Dust shown in purple hues is blowing over African and Asian deserts. The location of cities and towns can be found from the concentrations of lights based on satellite image data of the Earth at night.

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Looks like clean air to me except for third world areas like the west coast of the US and Congo.

And CFC aerosols...

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A lot of stuff in the air!

There was not that much snow in Alaska in August. The baseline ground picture, possibly a composite, was taken in winter.

What a dreamy, surreal beautiful picture.
I would like to see what it would look like today with the global Corona shutdown.

Geo wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 12:52 pm What a dreamy, surreal beautiful picture.
I would like to see what it would look like today with the global Corona shutdown.

Today we are before the fire season revs up in the northern hemisphere, so << smoke from wildfires. Otherwise much the same except for seasonal variations in where high winds are blowing.

Boomer12k wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 8:26 am And CFC aerosols...

Art probably knows best, but I don't think CFCs are present in the upper atmosphere as aerosols, unless they hijack a ride on other aerosols. Mostly I think they're just diffuse gases.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 2:00 pm

Boomer12k wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 8:26 am
And CFC aerosols...

Art probably knows best, but I don't think CFCs are present in the upper atmosphere as aerosols, unless they hijack a ride on other aerosols. Mostly I think they're just diffuse gases.

CFCs are gases that become dangerous (to ozone) when they:

• 1) hijack a ride on Polar Stratospheric Cloud ice particles
  2) and are then exposed to sunlight.

Stratospheric pressures are low enough that ice particles sublimate directly into water vapor.

If the high spots over the West Coast of USA are due to forest fires, what is happening in the Congo?

JohnD wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:47 pm If the high spots over the West Coast of USA are due to forest fires, what is happening in the Congo?

Just a guess John, but slash and burn agriculture?

JohnD wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:47 pm If the high spots over the West Coast of USA are due to forest fires, what is happening in the Congo?

Forest clearing and slash burning. Fires, just not "wild" ones.

JohnD wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:47 pm If the high spots over the West Coast of USA are due to forest fires, what is happening in the Congo?

seasonal agricultural burnoff

bystander wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:51 pm

JohnD wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:47 pm If the high spots over the West Coast of USA are due to forest fires, what is happening in the Congo?

seasonal agricultural burnoff

Consensus