by Kathryn Hansen NASA Earth Observatory
Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The October 2018 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what we are looking at and why it is interesting.
How to answer. You can use a few words or several paragraphs. You might simply tell us the location. Or you can dig deeper and explain what satellite and instrument produced the image, what spectral bands were used to create it, or what is compelling about some obscure feature in the image. If you think something is interesting or noteworthy, tell us about it.
The prize. We can’t offer prize money or a trip to Mars, but we can promise you credit and glory. Well, maybe just credit. Roughly one week after a puzzler image appears on this blog, we will post an annotated and captioned version as our Image of the Day. After we post the answer, we will acknowledge the first person to correctly identify the image at the bottom of this blog post. We also may recognize readers who offer the most interesting tidbits of information about the geological, meteorological, or human processes that have shaped the landscape. Please include your preferred name or alias with your comment. If you work for or attend an institution that you would like to recognize, please mention that as well.
Recent winners. If you’ve won the puzzler in the past few months or if you work in geospatial imaging, please hold your answer for at least a day to give less experienced readers a chance to play.
Releasing Comments. Savvy readers have solved some puzzlers after a few minutes. To give more people a chance to play, we may wait between 24 to 48 hours before posting comments.
Good luck!
NOTE: WUWT readers are welcome to comment and speculate here, but to win the contest, you will need to post the comment on the NASA website here
Thanks, Anthony
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Sea ice.
KJ Blanche
I sea ice, but I can’t believe my eyes. 🙂
An ice floe.
It’s interesting how the ice is large enough to change the character of the clouds on either side. Both the cloud volume and the area to height ratios have been changed by the ice flow. A zoomed out picture would be interesting to see if further down wind, the clouds reverted back.
co2isnotevil
We’re examining a photograph taken from space, transmitted through the ether, processed by computers, downloaded onto a blog, viewed by people with questionable internet connections, transmitted by questionable wireless connections to dodgy computers, using a variety of operating systems and browsers, with wildly varying monitors, and most of us wearing $5 spectacles, not having had an eye test in 5 years, and you want a zoomed out shot? 🙂
“viewed by people with questionable internet connections, transmitted by questionable wireless connections to dodgy computers, using a variety of operating systems and browsers” sounds good but I dont think any of that fundamentally changes the image
yarpos
Have you tried an ‘insiders’ copy of Windows 10?
Blurry text on some PC’s, with some browsers, amongst other problems.
co2,
Good observation.
It’s something I expect based on my model of clouds being the degree of freedom that modulates the system towards a predestined steady state. The effect clouds have on the albedo is different depending on whether or not there’s snow and ice below them. This is clear from the picture where the clear sky is more reflective than the clouds when over ice while its less reflective when clouds are over water. In other words, incremental clouds have opposing incremental effects on the albedo above and below 0C. The top of the ice radiates at 0C.
This can be seen in this plot of cloud coverage vs. the SB emissions corresponding to the reported temperature. Notice the peak cloud coverage at about 315 W/m^2, corresponding to 273K (0C), when suddenly, incremental clouds have a different affect on the albedo.
http://www.palisad.com/co2/sens/se/ca.png
co2 is n e:
Good eye! I note the rather rectangular blocks of cloud with alligned open spaces around them only over the ice. I’ve seen boxy convection cell clouds before but the spacing suggests an upward flow of air pusing them apart. Maybe air heated above the ice by reflected energy rising vertically up through the lattic bounding the cells. There is no wind. I note both ends of the length the floe have some hilly topography with every where else a flat plain. The plain must be the influence that causes the rectilinear arrangement of the clouds alligned with the lenght and breadth of the floe.
Gary Pearse
Good thinking. In the book Convection Heat Transfer by Adrian Bejan there are several examples of the type and shape of convection cells that are created between cold and hot plates, hot plates and so on, where heat is passing upwards or downwards.
Depending on the delta T, the cells take on different shapes automatically and those shapes are affected by the vertical separation. Cells can be square, hexagonal and other shapes. In certain conditions, the cells will be square and when the lower plate is heated further, the convection cells re-form into nested hexagons.
Crispin,
Good reference —– “Convection Heat Transfer by Adrian Bejan”. — Thanks.
lt is interesting how this ice was able to turn the cloud above it into “roller cloud”.
This suggests that this ice island was not a flat surface and that part of its surface area was at least 800ft above the sea level.
I have seen ridges much less than 800 feet tall affect clouds. Temperature difference alone can affect clouds. I have seen clouds form from onshore wind hitting shorelines, so it does not take a lot to affect a cloud pattern.
lts the fact that the cloud became banded that made me think there is quite a difference in height between this ice island and the sea. Because this banding in the cloud suggest that a wave pattern in the air was set up by this ice island. The lowest height l have seen or read about causing this to happen is 800ft. So that is why a suggested this height, also a ice island of this size would be able to have at parts of its surface well above the sea level.
Actually, It is NOT changing the clouds, just the way you see them. Look very closely.
Some great big piece of plastic for some covering for an experiment of some sort is my guess.
Yes, look carefully.
On the lower right, the conditions are mostly cloudy within thinner clouds covering more area. On the upper left, the conditions are partly cloudy with taller clouds covering less area. You can even see the cloud height/area ratio morph between the lower right and upper left as it crosses the ice flow. It also looks like the wind is blowing from the lower right to the upper left.
No this ice island is certainly having a effect on the cloud cover. Notice how at the bottom of the photo the cloud looks the same over both the sea and the ice. But around half way up the photo the cloud over the ice island was changing into roller cloud. This suggests that at least the middle of this ice island was well above the sea level.
Haarpston, the ego has landed.
+1
glad Im not the only other..I thought Cristo mighta been busy
old screen and more than $5 specs but stuffed if I could see what/where either.
Reverted back? From what? You’re looking at them with a flat white background, and they are white clouds. And they are throwing darker shadows on to the ice. So of course they look different to clouds on a dark background, plus no visible shadows cast.
From the taller puffier clouds on the leeward side of the ice flow back to the flatter closer packed clouds on the windward side. Alternatively, were the clouds taller and puffier further back from the windward side and did the ice flow compress the incoming cloud bank.
It’s interesting from the perspective of determining whether the change in clouds is due to the change in albedo difference between clouds and no clouds, is it due to a different temperature over the ice, is it due to an obstruction in the air flow or some combination.
MODS the Security Certificate BS is starting again. That is added to ” This Page Can’t Be Displayed ” nonsense has resurfaced this week.
Carbon Bigfoot,
I thought that you had been banned permanently.
More like Berg Foot
The problem is with settings on your own computer and a slow internet connection.
Go to your browser settings and turn off the appropriate certificate notification setting…and while you are there clear all the data.
since daylight saving my pc has to be reset to correct time and sometimes year/date as well, every single day i turn it on!
time to save the disk and migrate to Linux for good i reckon
Looks like visible light image, not microwave sounding.
The initial impression that is was a Vogon mother-ship hovering above the Earth can be discounted by noting the shadow of the clouds. So it is sea , not sky. It appears to be at least 10 miles long.
NH sea ice is consolidating at this time of year. So I’d guess a chunk of sea ice broken off Larsen C , Antarctica.
Yes, looks like one of those peculiar icebergs we’ve seen pictures of lately, through light cloud cover.
But in reality it is a dire message from Nature to Man:
“Hello! I,m dying! It’s your fault. Send money immediately or there will be freezy, gorish weather in Poland come December and COP. Following credit cards accepted….”
An ice floe.
It’s that ‘square’ block of ice on the move.
Ice man cometh!
Iceberg in the Southern Ocean?
You are being fooled by the lack of scale.
It’s a piece of ice plopped into a bacteria-infested glass of blue curacao
They are hardy bacteria which can survive in blue curacao.
The shadows seem to be to the north of the clouds, so if it’s SH it”s upside down.
It’s an iceberg and proves that NASA employees are getting paid to goof off. Or maybe it proves that the climate is spiraling out of control due to CACA, if you prefer.
NASA tracks large icebergs
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icesat/
https://icebridge.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Yet another geometric ice berg?
John Tillman
It’s all becoming clear now.
Climate change is a geometric conundrum, nothing to do with atmospheric CO2!
Or it’s crap on the camera lens.
The bond angle of CO2 is exactly 180 degrees!
John Tillman
You mean James Bond’s involved here?
Must be serious.
🙂
It’s all Blofeld’s doing. The object is his latest weapon of mass extortion, which he plans on using it to extort trillions from the world economy. Fortunately Bond is on the job and will scupper Blofeld’s latest scheme.
It’s the Vast Quantum Mechanical Conspiracy.
Icebergs calve off of the face of glaciers and tend to be irregular masses. Ice floes are generally large chunks from a floating ice shelf that break off and thus tend to be large and relatively flat.
No, antarctic icebergs are normally so called “plateau icebergs”, not “irregular masses”.
Both icebergs which calve off glaciers and those which break off floating ice shelves are called icebergs, to distinguish them from sea ice.
I’m not saying it’s aliens, but it’s aliens.
You forgot 🛸 at the end.
The death of AGW
Paul Homewood
Hah! you fool.
AGW will return, bigger and better (after a little rest)>
It is a very large piece of ice that broke cleanly and just took the form seen. I guess South Pole. The clouds are the same colour and elevation but the background fools you. Try masking the photo with your finger at the edges of the ice and you’ll see what I mean.
Just a wild guess.
“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop……………
I went to an appreciation dinner a few years ago (for someone else) and met the executive producer of the original Twilight Zone series. At the time he was pretty old so I doubt he is still with us.
What a great 20 minute talk I had with him. Pretty good stories on some of the better episodes and the actors that played the characters along with how it came to be and Rod Serling.
rbabcock
Ah memories……..I’m too young of course. ~ahem~
Insufficient data . . .
Global warming will make the world less geometrical. Honest, the IPCC said so, somewhere, I’m sure. The corners will die!
That is clearly an Emperial Star Destroyer
RobbCab
Don’t be silly. It’s a vampire coffin.
“Cough, cough…………..”
See, told you!
I’ll get my coat.
It’s the sword part of a Damokles one used to cool down and silence the warmists, unfortunately so heavily handled that it broke by the shaft.
That is Death’s yacht. I wonder if Binky has a stall on board.
🙂 lol
Is it bigger than a breadbox?
It is an artistic statement by Mother Earth, symbolizing her own death at the hands of humans.
The medium is clouds on ice.
ARTIST: Mother Earth
TITLE: My End Is Near
DATE CREATED: unknown
DIMENSIONS: unknown
MARKET VALUE: it doesn’t matter, because we’re all doomed
PROVENANCE: see above
Robert Kernodle
OK smarty, where are the pall bearers?
And the four horsemen of the apocalypse?
I like this game, can you tell? 🙂
I find that statement appalling.
An Imperial Battle Cruiser
+10 😜
You mean a star destroyer?
Herd of sheep in a meadow.
Love it!!!!!!
We’re all wrong, a vision, finally. Brought to me by a voice echoing through the ether, from Mercury no less!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p_1QSUsbsM
That’s…..Freddie Mercury!
Why didn’t that post?
Al Gore sunbathing…
Bruce
I thought that’s what William Schroeder posted two above…….. “Herd of sheep in a meadow”.
A gi-normous white coffin.
More specifically, it symbolizes the end of Anthropegenic Climate Change!
It is simply another cloud formation more condensed.
Perhaps Norman Greenbaum’s spirit in the sky.
Tom in Florida
Good one!