Ships turn up sediment in the shallow waters off of China's Shandong Peninsula on Feb. 24, 2015, revealing both northbound and southbound shipping lanes. (Credit: NASA)

The highways of the shipping industry across the world's oceans can be seen from space in two different ways.

In the first six images of the slideshow above from NASA, the narrow brown streaks show the northbound and southbound shipping lanes off China's Shandong Peninsula. that sediment from the shallow coastal waters is brought near the surface of the ocean by the propellers from each ship, leaving behind a temporary view of the paths. In some of the closer images, you can even see a few of the ships.

Also shown in the slideshow are streaks of clouds called ship tracks. These are created when water vapor condenses around particles from the exhaust of ships, resulting in streams of clouds that are visible from space on clear days.

, clouds that are created from pollutants are brighter than natural clouds.This is because the cloud particles in the ship tracks are smaller, but more numerous than the natural clouds. The brighter clouds can reflect more sunlight back to space, reducing the amount of light that makes it to the surface of the earth.

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