Ship tracks: a geographical and statistical study
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Authors
Lutz, John W.
Subjects
Remote sensing
Ship tracks
Ship tracks
Advisors
Durkee, Philip A.
Date of Issue
1992-12
Date
December 1992
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
Anomalous cloud lines are frequently seen in satellite images as curvilinear features. These cloud lines or "ship tracks" are likely due to products of ship-produced hot exhaust gases that are expelled into the atmosphere, increasing the aerosol concentration in the ship track plume. NOAA 9 and 10 AVHRR data are sensitive to loud droplet size and show the ship tracks as increases in radiance due to reflectance. Twenty eight NOAA 9/10 satellite passes are analyzed. Twenty two of the passes are found to contain a total of 316 ship tracks which is significantly more than that expected
by earlier ship track studies. An existing ship track detection algorithm is used to conduct a
statistical comparison of ship track and non-ship track, or ambient pixel reflectance of the NOAA 9 and 10 AVHRR channels 1 (O .63 µm), 3 (3.7 µm) , and (11 µm) . The results of the statistical
analysis confirm, as found in previous studies, that the ship track pixels displayed a significant
increase in values for channels 1 and 3 and a very slight increase for channel 4.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Meteorology
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
64 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.