Pre 1995 Persistent Contrail Archive

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A paragraph from "Synoptic Meteorology" by A. S. Zverev (1977).

Condensation (sublimation) airplane trails forecasting. In some cases the flight of a plane at altitude of 7-12 km is accompanied by a cloud trail with thickness of 1.5-2 km, which is similar to cirrocumulus clouds.

The trail is formed from exhaust water vapor when it is mixed with surrounding air. The formation of a cloud trail is similar to that of ice fog and usually takes place at temperatures of -43...-65 deg. C at the flying level. The probability of cloud trail formation grows with the rise of relative humidity. That's why persistent cloud trails form before or when cirrus clouds come (it means leading part of cyclone).

Non-persistent cloud trails are observed in fore parts of filling cyclones and in low gradient pressure zones with convective currents.

In central parts of anticyclones cloud trails do not usually form.

The lower margin of cloud trail corresponds to the layer in which saturation specific humidity is equal to 0.10 g/kg w.r.t. ice or 0.15 g/kg w.r.t. water. The upper margin is usually located at the tropopause.

Assuming that air at the tropopause is ice-saturated, the lower margin of cloud trail can be determined with the help of skew-t diagram in the point of intersection of stratification curve and 0.1 (0.15) g/kg saturation mixing ratio.

When no humidity data is available, one can use the diagram below. The dashed line represents temperature distribution with height. The pressure in point "A" locates the lower margin of cloud trails, but pressure in point "B" locates the upper one. Of course, many variations of temperature are possible, and the positions of "A" and "B" points will change, if the curve intersects the area "Trails form".

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Sentinel, aka "Spitfire Island". Birmingham, England.

Not quite pre 1995 but I thought it might be of interest. Note the vapour trails!




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinel_(sculpture)
Sentinel (grid reference SP13789065) is a 16m high sculpture by Tim Tolkien, installed upon a traffic island at the intersection of the Chester Road and the A47 Fort Parkway at the entrance to the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham, England.
It is near Junction 5 of the M6 motorway and the present day Jaguar Cars plant (the former Castle Bromwich aircraft factory). It shows three Supermarine Spitfires peeling off up into the air in different directions. The half-scale Spitfires are made of aluminium, with curving steel supporting beams which act as vapour trails. It captures the dynamics of the Spitfire in flight and commemorates the nearby Castle Bromwich factory where most of Britain's wartime Spitfires were built.
There are proposals to move the sculpture to a new site, near its current location, to allow for road widening.
The roundabout on which the sculpture is placed is locally known as 'Spitfire Island'.
History[edit]
The award-winning project began in 1997 as part of the regeneration of Castle Vale estate. Using National Lottery funding, Tolkien was appointed as artist in residence. He consulted with Castle Vale residents about an art feature and found that they were inspired above all else by the area's air history, during World War II, and favoured a sculpture featuring Spitfires. The sculpture was opened on 14 November 2000. The sculptor is the great-nephew of J. R. R. Tolkien (the author of The Lord of the Rings, who grew up in Birmingham).
The main commercial sponsors of the spitfire sculpture were from Jaguar, Rubery Owen Holdings and Cincinnati. Both Cincinnati and Rubery Owen Holdings made component parts for the Spitfires which were assembled by Jaguar at their factory, the former Castle Bromwich Spitfire and Avro Lancaster bomber factory.
The Castle Bromwich Aerodrome Factory was built in 1940 to produce planes for the war effort. These were mostly Spitfires (almost 12,000 were made there, from 1940 to 1945) and Lancaster bombers. Over 37,000 test flights were made from Castle Bromwich Aerodrome, the planes being towed across the road from the factory to the Aerodrome when completed. The Chief Test Pilot throughout this period, Alex Henshaw, unveiled the sculpture.
The aerodrome site and the adjacent British Industries Fair site (forerunner of the nearby National Exhibition Centre) are now wholly taken up by the Castle Vale estate
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Hi all.

I'm a weather forecaster for the UK met office, currently working on a training base for fast jet pilots. One of the products I produce for the airfield includes a forecast of the altitude above which contrails can be expected to form.

I first ran into this chemtrail stuff after a friend on facebook posted a picture of some contrails they claimed to be "chemtrails" and then met Ross Marsden on twitter.

Anyway, I follow the WMO account on twitter, and noticed that their international cloud atlas books are available for free online..

Volume 1, from 1975 is mostly textual descriptions of cloud types and meteo phenomenon http://library.wmo.int/pmb_ged/wmo_407_en-v1.pdf
Section II.6.3...

II.6.3
Condensation trails (contrails)
Contrails are clouds which form in the wake of an aircraft when the atmosphere at flying level
is sufficiently cold and humid. When just formed, they have the appearance of brilliant white
streaks; soon however they show pendant swellings like inverted mushrooms. Often they are
short-lived, but especially when Cirrus or Cirrostratusis present, they may persist for several hours.
Persistent trails spread progressively, frequently forming large patches of fluffy or fibrous clouds,
having the appearance of Cirrus or patches of Cirrocumulus or Cirrostratus; in fact it is sometimes
impossible to distinguish old contrails from these clouds.
Contrails may produce halo phenomena with exceptionally pure colours.
The main factor in the formation of contrails is the cooling of the exhaust gases which have
a high water vapour content as a result of the combustion of fuel. Condensation nuclei provided
by the exhaust gases of the engines also assist in their formation.
A type of contrail different from that described above and with a much shorter life sometimes
develops as a result of expansion in eddies from propeller- and wing-tips
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Volume 2, from 1987 contains example pictures http://library.wmo.int/pmb_ged/wmo_407_en-v2.pdf

It contains 2 pictures of contrails from 1945.


I can't figure out how to copy them from the pdf, but they are on page 166 and 167, here is the caption text

Condensation trails (contrails)
Three condensation trails (I, 2, 3) can be seen. They expand with time. The two older trails (I, 2). probably made 15-30 minutes before the picture was taken, have assumed a fleecy aspect, while the most recent one (3). which is just being produced, merely looks like a white streak in the sky. Numerous Cirrus clouds can also be seen; they may have developed out of contrails formed earlier.
A weak trough associated with a low near Iceland was passing over southern England. Rather humid and warm air associated with a weak warm front at about 700 km distance, was invading the higher layers of the troposphere from the north-west.

Condensation trails (contrails)
The sky is crossed in every direction by contrails of different ages. As they expand progressively they form fluffy or fibrous clouds and it is impossible to say with certainty whether there are also clouds of natural origin in the sky. Note the pendant swellings, like inverted toadstools, at 1-2, typical of recently formed contrails.
From an anticyclone in the south-west a strong ridge of high pressure extended over the area. In the higher layers, advection of warm and rather humid air was in progress from the north-north-east. The associated warm front was at about 250 km west north-west of Farnborough; it caused only light precipitation when it passed.
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At work we also have a big board for observing listing all the SYNOP codes and descriptions, the section on high clouds includes a note mentioning persistent contrails. It is dated January 1982 I think. Next time I'm on shift (not for a couple of weeks, as I'm on leave) I'll see if I can get a photo of it and upload it.
 
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I like this one from your link

Good spot! I missed that one.

There are lots of good pictures of different types of cirrus clouds in volume 2. I've noticed a few people on Twitter lately posting pictures of cirrus formations and optical phenomena that they think are unusual and unnatural and evidence of something sinister. I think the cloud atlases are good resources to point them towards.
 
I was wondering as to if it is just photos that are valid. I have always kept a diary and I have options of contrails over the middle of the North Sea. They are between 79 and 84 when I used to go on trawlers with my dad. I remember some were from Nimrod. Also I have diary entries for the Gulf War and watching B52's fly over. I am happy to try to scan.
 
I was wondering as to if it is just photos that are valid. I have always kept a diary and I have options of contrails over the middle of the North Sea. They are between 79 and 84 when I used to go on trawlers with my dad. I remember some were from Nimrod. Also I have diary entries for the Gulf War and watching B52's fly over. I am happy to try to scan.

Would be interesting, but likely not that convincing to the believers.
 
In one of the first contrails ever produced on 11 May 1919 above Munich a halo was observed. Furthermore, in his early flight observations, Weickmann stated that “We remember several contrails where the most wonderful halo phenomena developed we ever saw.” In addition, the statements by Boerner and aufm Kampe point to the observation of unusual bright halo phenomena in contrails
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http://www.sussmann-publications.lima-city.de/halo_1997.pdf
 
Follow up to my post from about a month ago, I finally got round to snapping a pic of our synop codes shortcut board at work.

Apologies for the poor quality it was just using my phone cam. I wanted to ensure the date and the relevant text on persistent contrails was visible in the same image. The text at the bottom is legible if you zoom in, it reads...

"Note: Persistent aircraft contrails and clouds formed from them are reported as cloud using the appropriate CH code figure. Rapidly dissipating condensation trails are not reported."
2013-09-10 13.39.11.png
upload_2013-9-10_6-25-4.png
 
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In one of the first contrails ever produced on 11 May 1919 above Munich a halo was observed. Furthermore, in his early flight observations, Weickmann stated that “We remember several contrails where the most wonderful halo phenomena developed we ever saw.” In addition, the statements by Boerner and aufm Kampe point to the observation of unusual bright halo phenomena in contrails
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http://www.sussmann-publications.lima-city.de/halo_1997.pdf

That paper also contains some 1996 contrails. Close enough


Interesting looking references there:

17. L. Weickmann, “Wolkenbildung durch ein Flugzeug,” Naturwissenschaften 7, 625 ~1919!.
18. A. Schmauss, “Randbemerkungen IV, 10: Bildung einer Cirruswolke durch einen Flieger,” Meteorol. Z. 36, 265 ~1919!.
19. D. S. Hancock, “A mock sun in vapour-trail cloud,” Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 69, 46 ~1943!.
20. H. Boerner, “Haloerscheinungen an Kondensfahnen,” Z. Angew. Meteorol. 60, 397 ~1943!.
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FZG already posted the first one here:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/pre-1995-persistent-contrail-archive.487/page-3#post-51176
 
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And there is a little challenge for Metabunk.
Can Metabunk share a genuine picture, pre-1990's of the sky over a busy city like London, Paris, Amsterdam etc... showing the similar Contrail littered sky...even less littered....These EU cities have always had busy air traffic....
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I'm sure there are, but if we do show him the pictures I bet he's just going to dismiss them as fabrications. Who decides if they are "genuine" or not?

Paris 1983
http://www.flickr.com/photos/olibac/1255066630/


Contrast enhanced for sky.
upload_2013-9-29_8-2-31.png
 
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I have recently been combing through hundreds and hundreds of vintage ads going back to the 20's to present day. Amazing what you will find. I thought I would share some of these to add to the thread and evidence of Pre- 1995 contrails.

First up we have this regarding Hawaii..........
What is that in the sky in this United Hawaii ad form 1959?? I'll be damn. A persistent contrail I see.............

http://www.popscreen.com/p/MTA5MzQ3MTE4/1959-United-Airlines-Hawaii-stewardess-plane-photo-ad-eBay


Boeing loves their contrails and uses them in this ad for their 707 flying high in 1957.......

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/airlines-and-aircraft-ads-1950s/27


Contrails in sunny Hawaii in this 1972 ad

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/travel-ads-1970s/21#ad49dsxnj4stc7kg


Persistent Contrail in the rear distance of this photo included 1954 Boeing ad for the Boeing Stratoliner Stratotanker Jet Transport (1954)

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/airlines-and-aircraft-ads-1950s/17#adyrdtsd62j4afol


I will post more later on.
 
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In this 1957 ad, Boeing shows off their new 707 model, and it amazing 600mph speed, and goes to the extra effort to show and name the clouds including their new cloud type the contrail......

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/airlines-and-aircraft-ads-1950s/87




Orlando Florida Trolleys (1987)

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/travel-ads-1980s/11#ady3cyr5zdb7nq0c


Virgin Islands 1982

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/travel-ads-1980s/9#adur5ye3q7isjvk2


Ontario Canada Travel Quinte Peninsula Photo (1979)

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/travel-ads-1970s/22#adohg0wv4sf4b2zt



Lake Tahoe Skiing (1970)

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/travel-ads-1970s/38#adxfq6jc5n4v7g8z


More later........
 
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Tim, your images are not showing up, looks like you are not posting the actual image URL, but whatever the image is linked to

Or an easier way to include an image is to copy it:

See:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/how-to-post-an-image-from-another-web-page.2054/


Got it. Your site has changed since I last tried to post. It ask me to input a URL instead and I guess I got confused. I will fix that and if you like I can put it in the other thread if you think it belongs there, or you can. Makes me no mind. Your site. :)
 
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