K. Nielsen

Emissions from Ships with respect to Their Effects on Clouds

Emissions of particles, gases, heat, and water vapor from ships are discussed with respect to their potential for changing the microstructure of marine stratiform clouds and producing the phenomenon known as ‘‘ship tracks.’’ Airborne measurements are used to derive emission factors of SO 2 and NO from diesel-powered and steam turbine-powered ships, burning low-grade marine fuel oil (MFO); they were ;15‐89 and ;2‐25 g kg21 of fuel burned, respectively. By contrast a steam turbine‐powered ship burning high-grade navy distillate fuel had an SO2 emission factor of ; 6gk g 21. Various types of ships, burning both MFO and navy distillate fuel, emitted from ;4 3 1015 to 2 3 1016 total particles per kilogram of fuel burned (;4 3 1015‐1.5 3 1016 particles per second). However, diesel-powered ships burning MFO emitted particles with a larger mode radius (;0.03‐0.05 mm) and larger maximum sizes than those powered by steam turbines burning navy distillate fuel (mode radius ;0.02 mm). Consequently, if the particles have similar chemical compositions, those emitted by diesel ships burning MFO will serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) at lower supersaturations (and will therefore be more likely to produce ship tracks) than the particles emitted by steam turbine ships burning distillate fuel. Since steam turbine‐powered ships fueled by MFO emit particles with a mode radius similar to that of diesel-powered ships fueled by MFO, it appears that, for given ambient conditions, the type of fuel burned by a ship is more important than the type of ship engine in determining whether or not a ship will produce a ship track. However, more measurements are needed to test this hypothesis. The particles emitted from ships appear to be primarily organics, possibly combined with sulfuric acid produced by gas-to-particle conversion of SO 2. Comparison of model results with measurements in ship tracks suggests that the particles from ships contain only about 10% water-soluble materials. Measurements of the total particles entering marine stratiform clouds from diesel-powered ships fueled by MFO, and increases in droplet concentrations produced by these particles, show that only about 12% of the particles serve as CCN. The fluxes of heat and water vapor from ships are estimated to be ;2‐22 MW and;0.5‐1.5 kg s21, respectively. These emissions rarely produced measurable temperature perturbations, and never produced detectable perturbations in water vapor, in the plumes from ships. Nuclear-powered ships, which emit heat but negligible particles, do not produce ship tracks. Therefore, it is concluded that heat and water vapor emissions do not play a significant role in ship track formation and that particle emissions, particularly from those burning low-grade fuel oil, are responsible for ship track formation. Subsequent papers in this special issue discuss and test these hypotheses.

Drizzle Suppression in Ship Tracks

Abstract Although drizzle was a relatively infrequent occurrence during the Monterey Area Ship Track study, diverse measurements from several sources produced data signals consistent with a reduction in drizzle drops in stratus clouds affected by ship effluents. Concurrent increases in liquid water in the cloud droplet size range, due to redistribution from the drizzle mode, were not always observed, possibly because of the relatively small and often negligible amounts of water in the drizzle mode. Significant changes in cloud droplet size distribution, as well as reductions in drizzle flux and concentrations of drops >50-μm radius, were observed in ship tracks when drizzle was more uniformly present in the ambient cloud. Radiometric measurements showed that increased droplet concentrations in ship tracks, which resulted in reduced droplet sizes, can significantly alter the liquid water path. Radar observations indicated that the reduced reflectivities of ship tracks compared with ambient clouds may be du...

The Impact of Ship-Produced Aerosols on the Microstructure and Albedo of Warm Marine Stratocumulus Clouds: A Test of MAST Hypotheses 1i and 1ii

Anomalously high reflectivity tracks in stratus and stratocumulus sheets associated with ships (known as ship tracks) are commonly seen in visible and near-infrared satellite imagery. Until now there have been only a limited number of in situ measurements made in ship tracks. The Monterey Area Ship Track (MAST) experiment, which was conducted off the coast of California in June 1994, provided a substantial dataset on ship emissions and their effects on boundary layer clouds. Several platforms, including the University of Washington C-131A aircraft, the Meteorological Research Flight C-130 aircraft, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ER-2 aircraft, the Naval Research Laboratory airship, the Research Vessel Glorita, and dedicated U.S. Navy ships, participated in MAST in order to study processes governing the formation and maintenance of ship tracks. This paper tests the hypotheses that the cloud microphysical changes that produce ship tracks are due to (a) particulate emission from the ship’s stack and/or (b) sea-salt particles from the ship’s wake. It was found that ships powered by diesel propulsion units that emitted high concentrations of aerosols in the accumulation mode produced ship tracks. Ships that produced few particles (such as nuclear ships), or ships that produced high concentrations of particles but at sizes too small to be activated as cloud drops in typical stratocumulus (such as gas turbine and some steam-powered ships), did not produce ship tracks. Statistics and case studies, combined with model simulations, show that provided a cloud layer is susceptible to an aerosol perturbation, and the atmospheric stability enables aerosol to be mixed throughout the boundary layer, the direct emissions of cloud condensation nuclei from the stack of a diesel-powered ship is the most likely, if not the only, cause of the formation of ship tracks. There was no evidence that salt particles from ship wakes cause ship tracks.

Composite Ship Track Characteristics

Abstract The physical and radiative properties of a composite ship track are described from the analysis of 131 ship–ship track correlation pairs collected during the Monterey Area Ship Track experiment. The significant variability of ship tracks around their average characteristics is also described. The nominal environmental conditions for the ship track set are also described. The composite ship track is 296 ± 233 km long, 7.3 ± 6 h old, and averages 9 ± 5 km wide. The ship is, on the average, 16 ± 8 km from of the head of the ship track along the relative wind vector and corresponds to a time of 25 ± 15 min. The set of ship tracks examined in this study formed in marine boundary layers that were between 300 and 750 m deep, and no tracks formed in boundary layers above 800 m. The tracks form in regions of high relative humidity, small air–sea temperature differences, and moderate winds (average of 7.7 ± 3.1 m s−1). The ambient cloud reflectance in advanced very high resolution radiometer channel 3 (3.7...

The Role of Background Cloud Microphysics in the Radiative Formation of Ship Tracks

The authors investigate the extent to which the contrast brightness of ship tracks, that is, the relative change in observed solar reflectance, in visible and near-infrared imagery can be explained by the microphysics of the background cloud in which they form. The sensitivity of visible and near-infrared wavelengths for detecting reflectance changes in ship tracks is discussed, including the use of a modified cloud susceptibility parameter, termed the ‘‘contrast susceptibility,’’ for assessing the sensitivity of background cloud microphysics on potential track development. It is shown that the relative change in cloud reflectance for ship tracks is expected to be larger in the near-infrared than in the visible and that 3.7- mm channels, widely known to be useful for detecting tracks, have the greatest sensitivity. The usefulness of contrast susceptibility as a predictor of ship track contrast is tested with airborne and satellite remote sensing retrievals of background cloud parameters and track contrast. Retrievals are made with the high spatial resolution Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Airborne Simulator flown on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s high-altitude ER-2 aircraft, and with the larger-scale perspective of the advanced very high resolution radiometer. Observed modifications in cloud droplet effective radius, optical thickness, liquid water path, contrast susceptibility, and reflectance contrast are presented for several ship tracks formed in background clouds with both small and large droplet sizes. The remote sensing results are augmented with in situ measurements of cloud microphysics that provide data at the smaller spatial scales.

Measurements of ship‐induced tracks in clouds off the Washington coast

In situ cloud microphysical measurements are presented for two ship tracks detected off the Washington coast in three successive satellite images from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) channel 3 (3.7 μm). Aerosol and cloud water chemical data suggest that the tracks were produced by effluents from ship stacks. Cloud droplet spectra measured in the ship tracks had effective radii about one half of those measured in the ambient clouds. A drizzle mode was present in the ambient cloud, but this was largely suppressed in the ship tracks. Analysis of cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) and total particle spectra in and around the ship tracks suggest that the stability of the tracks could have been due to a feedback between the lowering of CCN concentrations as the ship plumes diluted, consequent increases in peak supersaturations in the cloud, and a modest amount of particle growth by gas-to-particle conversion.

The Appearance and Disappearance of Ship Tracks on Large Spatial Scales

The 1-km advanced very high resolution radiometer observations from the morning, NOAA-12,and afternoon, NOAA-11, satellite passes over the coast of California during June 1994 are used to determine the altitudes, visible optical depths, and cloud droplet effective radii for low-level clouds. Comparisons are made between the properties of clouds within 50 km of ship tracks and those farther than 200 km from the tracks in order to deduce the conditions that are conducive to the appearance of ship tracks in satellite images. The results indicate that the low-level clouds must be sufficiently close to the surface for ship tracks to form. Ship tracks rarely appear in low-level clouds having altitudes greater than 1 km. The distributions of visible optical depths and cloud droplet effective radii for ambient clouds in which ship tracks are embedded are the same as those for clouds without ship tracks. Cloud droplet sizes and liquid water paths for low-level clouds do not constrain the appearance of ship tracks in the imagery. The sensitivity of ship tracks to cloud altitude appears to explain why the majority of ship tracks observed from satellites off the coast of California are found south of 35 8N. A small rise in the height of low-level clouds appears to explain why numerous ship tracks appeared on one day in a particular region but disappeared on the next, even though the altitudes of the low-level clouds were generally less than 1 km and the cloud cover was the same for both days. In addition, ship tracks are frequent when lowlevel clouds at altitudes below 1 km are extensive and completely cover large areas. The frequency of imagery pixels overcast by clouds with altitudes below 1 km is greater in the morning than in the afternoon and explains why more ship tracks are observed in the morning than in the afternoon. If the occurrence of ship tracks in satellite imagery data depends on the coupling of the clouds to the underlying boundary layer, then cloud-top altitude and the area of complete cloud cover by low-level clouds may be useful indices for this coupling.

A Case Study of Ships Forming and Not Forming Tracks in Moderately Polluted Clouds

The effects of anthropogenic particulate emissions from ships on the radiative, microphysical, and chemical properties of moderately polluted marine stratiform clouds are examined. A case study of two ships in the same air mass is presented where one of the vessels caused a discernible ship track while the other did not. In situ measurements of cloud droplet size distributions, liquid water content, and cloud radiative properties, as well as aerosol size distributions (outside cloud, interstitial, and cloud droplet residual particles) and aerosol chemistry, are presented. These are related to measurements of cloud radiative properties. The differences between the aerosol in the two ship plumes are discussed; these indicate that combustion-derived particles in the size range of about 0.03‐0.3-mm radius were those that caused the microphysical changes in the clouds that were responsible for the ship track. The authors examine the processes behind ship track formation in a moderately polluted marine boundary layer as an example of the effects that anthropogenic particulate pollution can have in the albedo of marine stratiform clouds.

A Case Study of Ship Track Formation in a Polluted Marine Boundary Layer

A case study of the effects of ship emissions on the microphysical, radiative, and chemical properties of polluted marine boundary layer clouds is presented. Two ship tracks are discussed in detail. In situ measurements of cloud drop size distributions, liquid water content, and cloud radiative properties, as well as aerosol size distributions (outside-cloud, interstitial, and cloud droplet residual particles) and aerosol chemistry, are presented. These are related to remotely sensed measurements of cloud radiative properties. The authors examine the processes behind ship track formation in a polluted marine boundary layer as an example of the effects of anthropogenic particulate pollution on the albedo of marine stratiform clouds.

Aerosol dynamics in ship tracks

Ship tracks are a natural laboratory to isolate the effect of anthropogenic aerosol emissions on cloud properties. The Monterey Area Ship Tracks (MAST) experiment in the Pacific Ocean west of Monterey, California, in June 1994, provides an unprecedented data set for evaluating our understanding of the formation and persistence of the anomalous cloud features that characterize ship tracks. The data set includes conditions in which the marine boundary layer is both clean and continentally influenced. Two case studies during the MAST experiment are examined with a detailed aerosol microphysical model that considers an external mixture of independent particle populations. The model allows tracking individual particles through condensational and coagulational growth to identify the source of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). In addition, a cloud microphysics model was employed to study specific effects of precipitation. Predictions and observations reveal important differences between clean (particle concentrations below 150 cm -3 ) and continentally influenced (particle concentrations above 400 cm -3 ) background conditions: in the continentally influenced conditions there is a smaller change in the cloud effective radius, drop number and liquid water content in the ship track relative to the background than in the clean marine case. Predictions of changes in cloud droplet number concentrations and effective radii are consistent with observations although there is significant uncertainty in the absolute concentrations due to a lack of measurements of the plume dilution. Gas-to-particle conversion of sulfur species produced by the combustion of ship fuel is predicted to be important in supplying soluble aerosol mass to combustion-generated particles, so as to render them available as CCN. Studies of the impact of these changes on the clouds potential to precipitate concluded that more complex dynamical processes must be represented to allow sufficiently long drop activations for drizzle droplets to form.