Article by Michael Theroux
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:
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