Title

Terrestrial glint seen from deep space: Oriented ice crystals detected from the Lagrangian point

Authors

Alexander Marshak, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Tamas Varnai, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
Alexander Kostinski, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-21-2017

Abstract

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft resides at the first Lagrangian point about one million miles from Earth. A polychromatic imaging camera onboard delivers nearly hourly observations of the entire sunlit face of the Earth. Many images contain unexpected bright flashes of light over both ocean and land. We construct a yearlong time series of flash latitudes, scattering angles, and oxygen absorption to demonstrate conclusively that the flashes over land are specular reflections off tiny ice platelets floating in the air nearly horizontally. Such deep space detection of tropospheric ice can be used to constrain the likelihood of oriented crystals and their contribution to Earth albedo. These glint observations also support proposals for detecting starlight glints off faint companions in our search for habitable exoplanets.

Publisher's Statement

Published 2017. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the United States of America. Publisher's version of record: https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073248

Publication Title

Geophysical Research Letters

Recommended Citation

Marshak, A., Varnai, T., & Kostinski, A. (2017). Terrestrial glint seen from deep space: Oriented ice crystals detected from the Lagrangian point. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(10), 5197-5202. http://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073248
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/physics-fp/166

Version

Publisher's PDF