NASA satellite makes art of ship tracks clouds over Atlantic Ocean

Using its Aqua satellite, NASA captured a beautiful image of ships tracks through the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of Spain and Portugal on Jan. 16.

The U.S. space agency posted the photo with a brief educational explanation on ship tracks and how they look through its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Wednesday.

"The narrow clouds, known as ship tracks, form when water vapor condenses around tiny particles of pollution that ships emit as exhaust or that form from gases in the exhaust," NASA writes. "Ship tracks typically form in areas where low-lying stratus and cumulus clouds are present.

"Some of the pollution particles generated by ships (especially sulfates) are soluble in water and serve as the seeds around which cloud droplets form. Clouds infused with ship exhaust have more and smaller droplets than unpolluted clouds."

NASA explains that when the light hits the polluted clouds it scatters in different directions, which makes them appear brighter and thicker than typical marine-based clouds. The clouds pictured at the top of the page are reportedly stretching for hundreds of miles from end to end with the "narrow ends of the clouds are youngest, while broader, wavier ends are older."

NASA's Aqua satellite is studying the Earth's water cycle, evaporation, water vapor levels in the atmosphere, clouds, weather, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice and snow cover during its mission. The space agency provides a real-time timeline of the satellite in orbit at this link.

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