Deep space observations of sun glint over oceans
| dc.contributor.author | Varnai, Tamas | |
| dc.contributor.author | Marshak, Alexander | |
| dc.contributor.author | Kostinski, Alexander | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-03-21T19:29:40Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-03-21T19:29:40Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-07-09 | |
| dc.description | 15th Conference on Cloud Physics; 9-13 Jul. 2018; Vancouver, BC; Canada 15th Conference on Atmospheric Radiation; 9-13 Jul. 2018; Vancouver, BC; Canada | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Every 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 |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This 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 |
| dc.description.uri | https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20180005597 | en |
| dc.format.extent | 14 pages | en |
| dc.genre | presentations (communicative events) | en |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.13016/m2bfct-o6t1 | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Marshak, 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 |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073248 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11603/13118 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | American Geophysical Union | en |
| dc.relation.isAvailableAt | The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Staff Collection | |
| dc.rights | This 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.rights | This 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.rights | Public Domain Mark 1.0 | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ | * |
| dc.subject | deep space observations | en |
| dc.subject | bright flashes of light | en |
| dc.subject | specular reflection | en |
| dc.subject | oriented ice crystals | en |
| dc.subject | search for habitable exoplanets | en |
| dc.subject | sun glint | en |
| dc.subject | ice crystals | en |
| dc.title | Deep space observations of sun glint over oceans | en |
| dc.type | Text | en |