When the conditions are just right, the Northwest sky can be streaked by dozens, if not hundreds, of cloud lines called contrails.
Consider a view from the NOAA GOES geostationary satellite this afternoon (below). The linear features are contrails. A lot of north-south lines over western Washington (aircraft going up and down the coast), while over the ocean, there is a mixture: some planes from Hawaii and others from CA heading north and west.
A lower polar-orbiting satellite got a closer-in view a few hours before, and if you look closely, you can see the shadows of the contrails on the ocean.
Contrails are associated with a layer aloft that is at or near saturation (100% relative humidity). In fact, the UW WRF model showed high relative humidity air (lighter colors) moving in around 2 PM (below).
Excellent conditions for contrail production.
Why? Because jet engines inject extra water vapor into the atmosphere, plus lots of particulates that can serve as condensation or freezing nuclei that enhance to cloud formation process.
A potent sign of the potential for contrail formation is the development of a thin cirrostratus cloud layer, a high-level cloud made of ice crystals. You can see this with your own eyes.
At 9 AM this morning, the skies over Seattle were essentially clear.
At 2 PM, there were contrails, in this case an "x" of crossing contrails above Mount Rainier. A bit over the top, perhaps, but that was reality.😃
I am taking a chance blogging about this. I can guarantee some folks will be upset at me for writing this blog.
Why? Because some people think that these lines in the skies are not the result of combustion in aircraft engines ejecting water vapor and particles, but a secret, nefarious government project to fight climate change. Instead of calling the lines contrails, they term them CHEMTRAILS.
Some people even think it's smoke. Then these same people go out and vote on things.
ReplyDeleteThe "chemtrails" folks miss a lot of science.
ReplyDelete“Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, . . ."
Richard Feynman, Cargo Cult Science, Caltech’s 1974 commencement address.
Find the full quote here:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3237792-details-that-could-throw-doubt-on-your-interpretation-must-be
Sounds insane, but groups like the WEF are openly talking about exploring spraying programs to fight climate change.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/09/solar-geoengineering-temperature-global-warming-climate-change/
The conspiracy theorists are saying that it’s already happening. Wouldn’t be surprised if they have experimented with it on a smaller scale, but a large scale program is much harder to believe.
I remember seeing those when I was a kid. Once they even seemed to spell out a phrase.
ReplyDeleteSURRENDER DOROTHY
No upset-ness from my end. What a great visual/practical education piece. Thanks Cliff.
ReplyDeleteI love that kind of info. Thsnks
ReplyDeleteWhy do contrails only seem to form at higher altitudes? Jets regularly fly over my house at about 11,000 feet, but even when the air is near saturated at that altitude (sometimes even flying right through small clouds) the planes at that altitude never leave a contrail. Does it have something to do with temperature, maybe that sublimation is slower than evaporation so the contrails are more persistent at very high elevations?
ReplyDelete