Thin Loops and curves within a contrail [Hybrid contrail, Crow Instability]

[JRBids]

Has anyone seen this photo? I thought I'd seen it here but it didn't come up in a reverse search?

https://www.metabunk.org/data/MetaMirrorCache/fa63e68b610a1cdcbb978ed41c40faac.jpg

 

[Mick West]

Has anyone seen this photo? I thought I'd seen it here but it didn't come up in a reverse search?

https://www.metabunk.org/data/MetaMirrorCache/fa63e68b610a1cdcbb978ed41c40faac.jpg

There were similar photos posted

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/hy...on-of-symmetric-and-asymmetric-contrails.929/

and:

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/crow-instability-hybrid-contrails-and-pendules.1571/
http://contrailscience.com/hybrid-contrails-a-new-classification/

That particular image was used here:
http://tankerenemy.blogspot.com/2009/09/weather-modification-chemtrails-and-geo.html

 

[skephu]

This is quite an amazing video of what I think may be an example of Crow instability, but the intricate structure baffles me:


Anyone seen anything similar?

 

[Mick West]

This is quite an amazing video of what I think may be an example of Crow instability, but the intricate structure baffles me:


Anyone seen anything similar?

Which bit exactly baffles you? It looks just like a good example of a hybrid contrail with crow instabilities.

 

[skephu]

Which bit exactly baffles you? It looks just like a good example of a hybrid contrail with crow instabilities.

Look at e.g. 0:39 or 3:25. It looks like a series of intricate knots. The usual form of the Crow instability resembles chromosome pairs, but here I see a more complex structure.

 

[Mick West]

Crow instability often forms loops. It does not look too different to the image in the OP:

And the second image is almost identical to the Wikipedia illustration of a crow instability:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crow_instability_contrail_1-9-08.JPG

 

[Mick West]

I think the loops pretty much always form. You just always get a sufficiently persistent hybrid contrail so you can see them. It likely requires quite precise atmospheric conditions - so as to maximize the hybrid contrail formation. More often the hybrid contrail does not extent into the connected part, so you get the "chromosome" appearance.

Here's a technical discussion of how the loops form. They are actually "vortex rings", a bit like smoke rings, formed by a kind of folding of the original vortices.

http://rs2007.limsi.fr/index.php/A_model_for_vortex_reconnection

 

[M Bornong]

Which bit exactly baffles you? It looks just like a good example of a hybrid contrail with crow instabilities.

Isn't the thumb nail of the video a single plane formation? The opening 30 seconds implies it was made by 2 planes flying in opposite directions?

 

[Mick West]

Isn't the thumb nail of the video a single plane formation? The opening 30 seconds implies it was made by 2 planes flying in opposite directions?

The two planes are probably unrelated, or the trail just came from one of them. It looks just like a single plane hybrid contrail.