MAST
Montery Area Ship Track experiment
The Monterey Area Ship Track experiment was held off the Coast of Northern California in June 1994 with the objective of understanding the interaction between aerosols and warm, marine stratocumulus clouds. Regularly, when viewed from the upper atmosphere, highly reflecting tracks, produced by ship emissions, are observed in marine stratocumulus - so called ship tracks.
 |
| Artificially coloured satellite image of ship
tracks over the Northeast Pacific off the coast of Oregon and Washington state. The
land is coloured green, high altitude clouds are coloured purple and areas of the ocean
unobscured by clouds are blue. Image courtesy of the Remote Sensing Lab at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Ca. |
Durkee, P, Johnson, DW, RN Ferek, T Garrett, PV Hobbs, J Hudson, KJ Noone,
LM Russell, S Platnick, JP Taylor, CD O'Dowd, W Hooper, P Durkee, K Nielson,
A Ackerman, C Bretherton, G Innis, Y Kogan, R Flagan, J Seinfield, MH Smith,
WA Hoppel. The impact of ship produced aerosols on the micro-physical characteristics
of warm stratocumulus clouds: A test of Hypotheses 1.1a and 1.1b, J. Atmos.
Sci, 57, 2554-2569, 2000. PDF
Noone, K.J., D. W. Johnson, J.P. Taylor, R.J. Ferek, T. Garrett, P.V. Hobbs,
P.A. Durkee, K. Neilson, S. Platnick, M.D. King, E. Östrom, C.D. O'Dowd,
M.H. Smith, L.M. Russell, R.C. Flagan, J.H. Seinfeld, L. De Bock, R. E.
Van Grieken, J.G. Hudson, I. M. Brooks, R. F. Gasparovic, and R. A. Pockalny.
A case study of ship track formation in a polluted boundary layer. J. Atmos.
Sci, 57, 2748-2764, 2000. PDF
Noone, K.J., E. Östrom, R.J. Ferek, T. Garrett, P.V. Hobbs, D. W. Johnson,
J.P. Taylor, L.M. Russell, R.C. Flagan, J.H. Seinfeld, C.D. O'Dowd, M.H.
Smith, P.A. Durkee, K. Neilson, J.G. Hudson, R. A. Pockalny L. De Bock,
R. E. Van Grieken, R. F.Gasparovic, and, I. M. Brooks,. A case study of
ships forming and not forming tracks in moderately polluted clouds. J. Atmos.
Sci, 57, 2729-2747, 2000. PDF
Hobbs, PV, Garrett, T, RN Ferek, SR Strader, DA Hegg, GM Frick, WA Hoppel,
R Gasparovic, LM Russell, DW Johnson, CD O'Dowd, PA Durkee, KE Nielsen and
G Innis. Emissions from ships with reference to their effects on clouds.
J. Atmos. Sci, 75, 2570-2590, 2000. PDF