View allAll Photos Tagged contrails
My fiance, Mark, alerted me to this! It looks like turbulence patterns in the clouds caused when aircraft have flown through them. Absolutely beautiful and remind me of a Van Gough painting!
Taken with a Canon 1100D with 18-55mm lens. Hand held
EDIT: I now know this to be a phenomenon called distrails
It feels colder today,about five degrees C....There was a very heavy frost this morning....I think it worked,I was trying to get both of the white contrails in the shot too.Two airliners following the same path across the sky.
Taken from my back garden in Newport, South Wales.
The airliner passing left to right is an Air Canada Airbus A330-343 C-GHKX.
Flying at 38,000 feet en-route Montreal (YUL) - Geneva (GVA).
The 2nd airliner is a Monarch Airlines Airbus A321-231 G-OZBL.
Flying at 29,547 feet en-route Manchester (MAN) - Malaga (AGP).
The condensation trails that form behind high-altitude aircraft, or contrails, are one of the most visible signs of the human impact on the atmosphere. On February 15, 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of numerous contrails over Portugal and Spain.
The composition of these long, narrow clouds is virtually identical to naturally-forming cirrus clouds. However, while naturally high levels of humidity cause the clouds, contrails form when airplanes inject extra water vapor into the atmosphere through their exhaust. In order for contrails to develop, air temperatures must be -39°C (-38°F) or below.
The humidity of the air affects how long contrails last. When air is dry, contrails last just seconds or minutes. But when the air is humid, contrails can be long-lived and spread outward until they become difficult to distinguish from naturally occurring cirrus clouds. Satellites have observed clusters of contrails lasting as long as 14 hours and traveling for thousands of kilometers before dissipating; however, most remain visible for only a few hours.
Contrails have an impact on climate. Long-lived, spreading contrails like the ones shown here are of particular interest to researchers because they reflect sunlight and trap infrared radiation. A contrail in an otherwise clear sky reduces the amount of solar radiation that reaches Earth’s surface, while increasing the amount of infrared radiation absorbed by the atmosphere. These opposing effects make it difficult to sort out the overall impact on climate.
However, a group of scientists at NASA’s Langley Research Center have made progress. They have developed a computer algorithm that searches through data from MODIS and automatically distinguishes between natural cirrus clouds and young- to medium-aged contrails. This has made it easier to estimate how much contrails contribute to overall cirrus and cloud coverage. In a study published in 2013, the group estimated that contrails cover between 0.07 percent to 0.40 percent of the sky in a given year. They also concluded that contrails produce a slight net warming effect on the Earth.
There are still problems the researchers are working to solve. “Detecting the older, wider contrails, like many of those in this MODIS image, remains a challenge and we are still unable to estimate their coverage and impact on climate as well as we would like,” noted Patrick Minnis, a NASA Langley scientist.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland, with information from Patrick Minnis and Douglas Spangenberg.
Instrument: Terra - MODIS
More info: 1.usa.gov/YIW2bf
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Chicago, IL. Photo by John Lishamer Photography (www.johnlishamer.com) All Rights Reserved. Nikon F3. Nikkor 24mm f2.8 ais. Kodak Tmax P3200. Xtol.
Due to the atmospheric conditions we had alot of contrails lingering around for long periods of time. They make good photographic subjects.
I've rarely seen the shadow before so had to take this shot ... and it appears, looking at it post processing, that it's been photobombed by a dark brown blur! 😁
A high altitude plane leaves a spectecular pre-dawn contrail- if that was what it was.
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Maybe it's the novelty of blue skies but, having seen the 4-engine contrails the day before, the same thing happened on the next. This time the light allowed me to see the Lufthansa Star Alliance logo and, thanks to Andreas and John, it's definitely an Airbus A340-300 and not my guess at an Airbus A380-800.
They don't exist above the lower stratosphere because of dry air and no water vapor. If you see 'em, they're in the troposphere or tropopause.