00:00It was in the year 2014 when a satellite snapped a picture of something unusual in the middle of
00:09the Pacific Ocean. It was a giant, almost perfect ring floating all by itself. It was an eerie sight.
00:16This formation showed up thousands of miles southwest of Hawaii and was about 280 miles
00:22wide. Who created this ring? How did it appear there? The questions were countless. The huge
00:29ring was spotted by NASA's Terra satellite with the help of a special camera called MODIS.
00:35Later, after examining the images, scientists realized that the ring was made out of perfectly
00:40shaped clouds. Even though clouds like this aren't super rare, it's not common to see one that big
00:47and completely on its own. Normally, such clouds show up in groups, not just hanging out solo in
00:52the middle of nowhere. The ring is made of puffy cumulus clouds. It turned out that it had been
00:58shaped by something called a Rayleigh-Bernard convection cell. It's a fancy-schmancy way
01:04of saying that the clouds formed when warm air arose and cooler air sank, creating a circular
01:10pattern. There are two types of such cloud cells. One is a closed cell, where cold air sinks around
01:17the edges and clouds pop up in the middle. The other is an open cell, where cold air sinks in the
01:24center, and clouds form around the outside. And that giant ring floating over the ocean
01:29was exactly a closed cell, hence its cool shape. Interestingly, such cloud patterns usually look
01:35like a bunch of hexagons packed together, you know, like a beehive in the sky. But this one was
01:41out there all by itself, which made it even more eye-catching. Now let's take a look at how the ring's
01:47formation happen in detail, shall we? At one point, the sun heated up the water, or land,
01:54warming the air above it. That warm air got lighter and started rising. Cumulus clouds formed. Maybe
02:00it even rained a bit. When that rain came down, it cooled the air beneath the clouds. That cooler air
02:06then sank and spread out in all directions. But when it ran into the surrounding warmer air,
02:12it pushed the warm air upward again. That's how the ring of clouds formed around the original spot.
02:18This whole thing happened just south of the intertropical convergent zone,
02:23a region near the equator where trade winds meet and often cause thunderstorms and heavy rain.
02:28That particular location probably helped with the formation of this cool cloud pattern too.
02:34Now take a look at the right side of the satellite image. The ocean looks super shiny there,
02:39almost like silver. That shiny effect is called sun glint. It happens when sunlight reflects directly
02:45off the ocean's surface and hits the satellite camera just right. It kind of turns the sea into a
02:51ginormous swirling mirror. The cool thing is that the texture of the water, whether it's smooth or choppy,
02:58changes how that sun glint looks. Most of the time, the wind stirs up the surface, creating waves.
03:04These waves normally scatter the sunlight in different directions. But some of that light
03:08still hits the satellite, so the area looks shiny. But sometimes, if the water is super calm
03:15or there's a break in the wave pattern, it can create darker patches where less light gets reflected
03:20back. It gives sun glint zones a strange, patchy look. So if you notice really dark spots in satellite
03:27images, keep in mind that they might not be shadows or oil spills. Most likely, they're just signs of how
03:34the wind and waves are behaving on the surface of the ocean. Now, at the same time, it's not just weak
03:40winds that can smooth out the water. According to an oceanography professor from the University of
03:45South Florida, other stuff like freshwater, shipwakes, and even natural ocean movement, such as underwater
03:52waves or currents, can change the water's texture too. And all these phenomena can mess with how the
03:58sunlight reflects, which, in turn, can cause weird patterns in the images. Some of the darker lines
04:04you can see, for example, inside places like Delaware Bay or Chesapeake Bay, might be freshwater
04:10mixed with things like algae, dissolved plant material, or even natural oils. But those patches aren't
04:17usually as big as the giant dark blob they saw off Delmarva. It happened on May 6, 2023, when the ocean
04:24just east of the Delmarva Peninsula was super calm. There was barely any wind. So, the surface of the
04:30water was all smooth and glassy like a giant mirror. And the angle was just right to make it look dark.
04:38Now, even though these sunglin effects make for some stunning satellite pictures, they can be
04:42annoying for scientists who are trying to study the color of the ocean or track things like phytoplankton
04:48blooms. Basically, sunglin can cover up the stuff they actually want to see. So, to work around that,
04:54scientists and engineers have built tools to either fix the data afterward or design sensors that avoid
05:00the glare in the first place. For example, the new ocean color instrument on NASA's upcoming PACE mission
05:07is designed to tilt just enough to dodge the worst of the Sun's reflection. Oh, by the way,
05:13NASA scientist Ralph Kahn reminds us that our eyes can deceive us, judging brightness based on what's
05:20around it. So, even a dark patch in an image might actually be pretty bright. It just looks dark compared
05:26to the shiny parts nearby. Now, let's tilt our heads back to the night sky. See that weird glowing spiral?
05:35Looks pretty extraterrestrial, doesn't it? Well, chances are, it was just a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
05:42doing its thing. When these rockets launch satellites into orbit, they sometimes dump leftover fuel once
05:48they're high up in the atmosphere. That fuel freezes and starts spinning around as the rocket moves.
05:54It looks like a mini ice tornado in space. But what makes it look even crazier is sunlight.
05:59Even if it's dark where you are, the rocket's way up high where the Sun can still hit it.
06:04The light reflects off the icy fuel spiral, making it glow. Just a bit of night sky drama,
06:11but nothing mysterious. Now, let's admit it, you aren't likely to see a real-life flying saucer.
06:18What you can see, though, is a lenticular cloud, which looks pretty much the same if you ask me.
06:24These clouds pop up high in the sky, usually around mountains, where moist air flows over them just
06:30right. Even though the wind is moving super fast, these clouds just kind of hang there, totally still,
06:37like someone has parked them there. They're usually perfectly shaped, smooth, and saucer-like.
06:42And still, it's just nature showing off again.
06:52Another kind of weird stuff you might see in the sky is space junk. When satellites stop working, a lot
06:59of them are just left behind, floating around. Eventually, they slow down because of atmospheric
07:05drag and start falling back to Earth. When they do, they light up the sky like massive fireballs.
07:11Sometimes it can last for nearly a minute. As the pieces burn up, the different materials they contain
07:17can create colorful streaks in the sky. And once in a while, chunks actually survive the trip and crash
07:24land on Earth. The leftover bits are often twisted and scorched. And they look so strange that people
07:30sometimes think they're wreckage of spaceships from another planet. But nope, just another piece of
07:36our own space clutter coming home. Now, look at this. A plane is flying straight toward the horizon
07:43and leaving behind a long contrail. You know, that artificial cloud from engine exhaust? And in some cases,
07:50it can look like something is falling from the sky. The wind can blow those trails wider,
07:55making the whole picture seem even more dramatic because it looks like smoke from a crashing object.
08:01Add in the red glow from a setting sun and, well, it looks like something is on fire and plummeting to
08:07Earth. Plus, if sunlight reflects off the bottom of the plane just right, it can look like there's a
08:12glowing core in the crashing cloud. But the giveaway is the speed. Slow. Real falling objects,
08:19especially from space, zip across the sky at thousands of miles per hour. So if it's barely
08:25moving, it's probably just a plane. Nothing to worry about. Wink wink.
08:32That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it
08:37with your friends. Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side!
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