Pacific Tic-Tac-Toe

The arrangement of lines in this image might look like an oceanic game of tic-tac-toe, but in fact, the grid can be explained by a relatively common atmospheric feature. Ship tracks are long, narrow clouds that form in the sky over the ocean when water vapor condenses around tiny particles in ship exhaust. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi-NPP satellite acquired this image of ship tracks on December 7, 2021. On that day, the tracks revealed several shipping lanes intersecting in the waters off the Pacific coast of North America. Trails of aerosol pollution from ships are present with or without the clouds.