‘‘Dirty Snow’Dirty Snow’

Dust on snow

Clean snow ~1 m (3 ft) higher than dusty snow after 30 days!!

Photos courtesy Tom Painter

Profound impacts to regional water resources (storage, timing of peak flow, hydro-electric power generation, ecosystem). Observations suggest that regional dust-on-snow events have increased in frequency over the past 7 years…

22

Snow/Cloud Discrimination

• High spatial resolution snow cover improved via cirrus filtering using the 1.38 m band

Miller, S. D., 2005, JAM 44(7), 987-997

33

Intercontinental Dust Transport

• A major dust storm in China made its way off the Asian continent on April 1st.

• Timing would be right for a Colorado appearance ~ April 6th.

Example of trans-Pacific dust transport (NASA)

Beijing, China Evergreen, Colorado???

Dusty Snow, Aspen Mtn.

A story of “East Meets West”? Or…

Local CO news headlines exclaim: “Mongolian Dust Hits Colorado!!”

East Asia

0.5 mm

“Fluorescent Sand”

Excitation Wavelength = 410 nm

Fluorescent minerals…a ‘So What?’, or information content to be exploited by future R/S…?

True Color

Aqua 7/2/2010 1015 UTC Iraqi Shamal

Dust Enhancement(Pink)

DiscreteSources

Lofting from Point Sources

2007 Southern California Fires & Dust

88

Volcanic Ash Detection

Eyjafjallajökull 18 April 2010

A floating island of pumice produced during island formation at Home Reef (near Tonga). Silicon dioxide and iron oxide content results in preferential blue-light absorption, allowing for enhancement by simple MODIS Red/Blue ratio techniques.

Pumice Raft

Ship Photos

pumice

Pumice Rafts: “Drifting Islands”

Oil Slick Detection from MODIS Observations in Sun Glint

Photos: Associated PressBP Deep Water Horizon Explosion 21 April 2010

Aqua/MODIS: April 21, 2010, 1920 UTCAqua/MODIS: April 21, 2010, 1920 UTCTerra/MODIS: April 22, 2010, 1645 UTCTerra/MODIS: April 22, 2010, 1645 UTC

Oil Slick

Cirrus

Cirrus Shadow

First Indication of a Slick

Evolution of Slick

Visible Data

True Color Background

Infrared Data

Night Lights Background

Solar Zenith Weighting

Blended VIS/IR/Background

‘GeoColor’

GOES-12: Aug 27 0015Z – Aug 29 1815Z

Hurricane Katrinain GeoColor

1515

Three-Layer GeoColor Example

““Milky Seas” Milky Seas”

A New Science Frontier Enabled by A New Science Frontier Enabled by Nighttime Low-Light Visible Remote Nighttime Low-Light Visible Remote

Sensing TechnologySensing Technology

. .

..

.

.

.. .

.

*

.

.

.

.

.

..

.

.

..

.

* .

.

.

.

*.

.

.. .

.

.

..

.

*.

*

Nocturnal Excursus…

Miller, S.D., et al., 2005, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 102(40), 14181-14184.

Miller, S. D., et al., 2006, Int. J. Rem. Sensing, 27, 5131-5143.

Maritime Folklore: Degrees of Truth

HalfTruths

Hoaxes

Toy SubmarineToy Submarine

Confirmed

‘‘Beautiful’Beautiful’ManateesManatees

Lifetime Supply Lifetime Supply of Calamariof Calamari

Monsters…?Monsters…? Mermaids…?Mermaids…? Man Eaters…?Man Eaters…?

What Are ‘Milky Seas’?

Produce a steady glow comparable to snow or cloud fields, with viscosity likened to ‘thick cream’ or ‘molten lead’.

Over 230 events reported since 1915, most in the NW Indian Ocean and Indonesian waters (Herring and Watson, 1993).

Single encounter by research vessel (Lapota et al. 1988) in Arabian Sea found luminous bacteria colonizing algal bloom.

Never before photographed or captured via remote sensing.

Circumstances surrounding their cause and reasons for occurring are almost entirely unknown.

Term coined by sailors to describe surreal encounters with massive (horizon-to-horizon) regions of glowing seawater.

Truth Inspiring Fiction…

“…let him be called from his hammock to view his ship sailing through a midnight sea of milky whiteness -as if from encircling headlands shoals of combed white bears were swimming round him, then he feels a silent, superstitious dread…”H. Melville’s Moby Dick

“About seven o’clock in the evening, the Nautilus, half-immersed, was sailing in a sea of milk. At first sight the ocean seemed lactified (...) The whole sky, though lit by the sidereal rays, seemed black by contrast with the whiteness of the waters. (…) Conseil could not believe his eyes, and questioned me as to the cause of this strange phenomenon. Happily I was able to answer him. ‘It is called a milk sea’…”J. Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

The S.S. Lima 1995 Account

“At 1800 UTC on a clear moonless night while 150 n.mile east of the Somalian coast a whitish glow was observed on the horizon and, after 15 minutes of steaming, the ship was completely surrounded by a sea of milky-white colour with a fairly uniform luminescence. The bioluminescence appeared to cover the entire sea area, from horizon to horizon […] and it appeared as though the ship was sailing over a field of snow or gliding over the clouds […] The bow waves and the wake appeared blackish in colour and thick black patches of oil were passing by. Later, the Aldis lamp revealed that the ‘oil patches’ were actually light green kelp, amazingly black against the white water.”—Capt James Briand, S.S. Lima; Marine Observer, 66, 12-13, 1996

25 Jan 1995 1836 GMT25 Jan 1995 1836 GMT26 Jan 1995 1804 GMT 26 Jan 1995 1804 GMT 27 Jan 1995 1725 GMT27 Jan 1995 1725 GMT28 Jan 1995 1841 GMT28 Jan 1995 1841 GMT

Detection of a Persistent Anomaly

SOMALIA

INDIANOCEAN

Socotra

Raw DMSP/OLS DATA

Digital Enhancement

1) Subtracted mean from each scan line2) Applied simple 3x3 pixel spatial coherence filter3) 8-pixel boxcar average in scan & track directions4) Histogram equalization

100 km

(~ 150 km of travel)

Spatial Evolution of Feature

Cold CoreEddy

Hypothesis: A ‘White Tide’?

1.1. Nutrient rich upwelling waters and cold ring Nutrient rich upwelling waters and cold ring accumulation zones offer ideal habitats for accumulation zones offer ideal habitats for phytoplankton blooms, which then serve as phytoplankton blooms, which then serve as focal points for bacterial colonization (either focal points for bacterial colonization (either in association or breakdown)in association or breakdown)

Above: A population explosion of Vibrio fischeri bacteria colonizing a nutrient-rich photobacterium broth.

2. ‘Quorum sensing’ occurs when cell 2. ‘Quorum sensing’ occurs when cell populations exceed 10populations exceed 108 8 cells/mL, triggering cells/mL, triggering localized light production.localized light production.

3. Growing bacterial colony secretes 3. Growing bacterial colony secretes increasing levels of autoinducer into increasing levels of autoinducer into environment–stimulating further environment–stimulating further bioluminescence. bioluminescence.

4. Scotopic (night/low-light) vision may 4. Scotopic (night/low-light) vision may explain the ‘milky white’ (vs. blue/green) explain the ‘milky white’ (vs. blue/green) appearance to human observers. appearance to human observers.

Milky Seas: Summary

There are massive light displays being produced in Earth’s oceans whose exact cause and purpose remain uncertain.

Jules Verne

Luminous bacteria blooms communicating via quorum sensing offer a plausible explanation for the steady glow.

Awaiting launch of VIIRS/DNB on NPP and the potential ability to confirm future sightings.

Our Planet Harbors Many Great Mysteries Still Unsolved!

Parting Thought

Communicating Scientific Information is an Art Form!

One World, Many Perspectives…