Deep space observations of sun glint over oceans

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorVarnai, Tamas
dc.contributor.authorMarshak, Alexander
dc.contributor.authorKostinski, Alexander
dc.date.accessioned2019-03-21T19:29:40Z
dc.date.available2019-03-21T19:29:40Z
dc.date.issued2018-07-09
dc.description15th Conference on Cloud Physics; 9-13 Jul. 2018; Vancouver, BC; Canada 15th Conference on Atmospheric Radiation; 9-13 Jul. 2018; Vancouver, BC; Canadaen_US
dc.description.abstractEvery hour or two, the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard the DSCOVR satellite provides unique full-color images of the sunlit side of the Earth from the L1 Lagrangian point, which is four times farther the Moon. Casual glances at such images often reveal bright colorful spots that stand out markedly from their surroundings. Such spots often appear not only over ocean but also over land. Tracking the colorful spots using an automated image analysis algorithm reveals that they are caused by specular reflection of sunlight, sometimes from ocean surfaces and other times from clouds containing horizontally oriented ice crystals. The presented study characterizes these spots in terms of prevalence, location, color, and brightness, and provides insights into the factors that lead to their appearance.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was supported by the NASA DSCOVR project and by NSFAGS-1639868. We thank Y. Yang for helping with EPIC O₂ simulations and K.Blank and J. Herman for helping us better understand EPIC Level 1 data. We also thank P. Yang and B. van Diedenhoven for insightful discussions on the nature of the sub suns and cloud micro physical processes. Finally, we would like to acknowledge G.S.Hernandez for the help with visual analysis of EPIC images. The EPIC data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/dscovr/dscovr_table).en_US
dc.description.urihttps://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20180005597en_US
dc.format.extent14 pagesen_US
dc.genrepresentations (communicative events)en_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/m2bfct-o6t1
dc.identifier.citationMarshak, A., T. Várnai, and A. Kostinski (2017), Terrestrial glint seen from deep space: Oriented ice crystals detected from the Lagrangian point, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, doi:10.1002/ 2017GL073248.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073248
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/13118
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherAmerican Geophysical Unionen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Staff Collection
dc.rightsThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
dc.rightsThis work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.*
dc.rightsPublic Domain Mark 1.0
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/*
dc.subjectdeep space observationsen_US
dc.subjectbright flashes of lighten_US
dc.subjectspecular reflectionen_US
dc.subjectoriented ice crystalsen_US
dc.subjectsearch for habitable exoplanetsen_US
dc.subjectsun glinten_US
dc.subjectice crystalsen_US
dc.titleDeep space observations of sun glint over oceansen_US
dc.typeTexten_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
20180005597.pdf
Size:
1.04 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
2.56 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

UMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET)
UMBC Staff Collection