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CONTRAILS
Scientific Studies
Regarding Aircraft Contrails and Cloud Formation
by Michael Theroux
2-15-99
Updates and Links below |
Link UPDATE: One Year Later - "Those Mysterious Lines in the
Sky" - are Still Flying by Jay
Reynolds
The assertion that the government is spraying noxious
chemicals on its own people from high flying military aircraft
needs some real substantiation than just reports of seeing
contrails in the sky and claiming they are making people sick.
While there have been reports of similar activity in the past,
merely seeing a jet contrail in the sky does not prove anything.
Persistence of contrails is neither an indication that they
contain some kind of chemical, nor that it is some kind of spray.
As a matter of fact, sailors have known for years to look
specifically at the patterns and persistence of jet contrails for
weather forecasting. If a jet is flying through air at altitude
with a low humidity, the moist air from the jet engine might
produce a slight, short-lived contrail. These short-lived
contrails are a sign that the weather will be fair. A thick,
long-lasting contrail indicates humid air high in the atmosphere,
and can be an early sign of a storm:
From SAIL Magazine's Sailing Tip of the
Week:
Indicator:Skies
Continuing Good Weather:Clear, light blue to
dark blue. Bright moon. Jet contrail disappears
immediately or doesn't form.
Possible Change:Large halo circling moon or sun.
Jet contrail lingers thickly before falling apart.
Several scientific studies are also being conducted with
respect to contrail formation and their climatic effects.
"Cirrus clouds affect Earth's climate by reflecting incoming
sunlight and inhibiting heat loss from the surface. Ordinarily,
cirrus clouds are only weakly influenced by most ground-based
human activities, because of their high altitude. However,
increasing levels of high-altitude jet air traffic may alter the
regional climatic effects of cirrus because aircraft condensation
trails (contrails) often produce new cirrus, which could differ
in their radiative properties."
For example, SUCCESS (SUbsonic aircraft Contrail & Clouds
Effects Special Study) is a NASA field program using
scientifically instrumented aircraft and ground based
measurements to investigate the effects of subsonic aircraft on
contrails, cirrus clouds and atmospheric chemistry.
Another project called AEAP (Atmospheric Effects of Aviation
Project) consists of two major efforts to assess the effect of
aircraft on the atmosphere. The objective is to develop a
scientific basis for assessment of atmospheric impact of subsonic
and supersonic aviation, particularly commercial aircraft cruise
emissions.
Most of these studies are designed to assess the environmental
impact of jet contrails – their effects on clouds and
formation of clouds, and their chemical compositions. Below are
specific links to several sites on the study of aircraft
contrails:
RADIATIVE
EFFECTS OF JET CONTRAILS
Jet
Contrail Studies Using Polarization Lidar
Dr. David
J. Travis, Climatologist (See list of published papers on
Aircraft Contrails)
Subsonic
Aircraft Contrail and Cloud Effects Special Study
SUbsonic
aircraft Contrail & Clouds Effects Special Study (SUCCESS)
Atmospheric Effects
of Aviation Project (AEAP)
Atmospheric Radiation
Measurement (ARM) Program
Environmental
Conditions Required for Contrail Formation and Persistence
A
comparison of the microphysical and optical properties of
particles in an aircraft contrail and mountain wave cloud
Hopefully, these links will be of help in understanding the
"contrail" problem.
Updated Links:
* 03-23-99
Those Mysterious Lines in the Sky
By Jay Reynolds
*updated 09-29-99
10-08-99 Contrails
(vliegtuigwolken) are Bad News
05-15-99 Contrail Formation, Duration, and
Altitude
05-06-99 Contrails Causing Illnesses - Or
Something Else?
03-17-99 Ian Goddard's CONTRAIL ANALYSIS II
02-28-99 Atmospheric Effects of Aircraft Emissions
02-20-99 CONTRAIL ANALYSIS by Ian Williams Goddard
Pages that suggest
Contrails are a government spraying operation:
Mystery Contrails: Poison From the
Sky
Contrail Connection
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