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The long white trails of clouds that are formed when airplanes fly across the sky are called contrails. When the “friendly skies” are busy there are many crisscrossing lines. • The word contrail is short for “condensation trail.” Webster’s Dictionary defines contrails as “streaks of condensed water vapor created in the air by an airplane or rocket at high altitudes.” • Contrails are considered “man-made” clouds since they are formed by airplane exhausts. Water vapor condenses and freezes when air around planes and particles (aerosols) from the exhausts hits the cold temperatures present at high altitudes where airplanes fly. • Contrails are formed above 30,000 feet, which is approximately 5-6 miles (9-10 km) above the earth where the air is extremely cold; less than -40° F (-40° C). • An interesting way to think of contrails is to compare when you exhale warm moist air in cold winter temperatures and “see your breath.” The damp, warm air coming from your lungs adds moisture to the air forming condensation. Usually the condensation from your breath evaporates in less than a second. Condensation from jet airplanes, in the form of contrails, can last quite a while, sometimes even for hours if the conditions are right. • Just like natural clouds, contrails are made of water and ice crystals. Depending on air conditions, contrails can last only a few minutes and be fairly small or they can grow miles long and remain visible for hours. The tiny moisture droplets in contrails freeze instantly and can’t evaporate or melt. They eventually fade away in what is called “sublimation,” when the solid particles turn to gas. It is the same situation as when dry ice ‘dissolves’ back into the air. • The first recorded spotting of a contrail happened over Italy in 1915 by a man named Ettenreich who said, “the condensation of a cumulus stripe from the exhaust gases of an aircraft” was visible for a while in the sky. • Real interest in contrails and more published reports came about during World War II. It was at that time that more aircraft were produced and used in combat that had the ability to reach high altitudes. • Hundreds of aircraft working together over Europe generated so many contrails that formations were hard to keep and targets hard to find. On the contrary, positions could be spotted by the enemy making aircraft vulnerable to enemy attack. • H. Appleman, an American scientist, in 1953, and E. Schmidt, a scientist in Germany, independently studied contrails and developed the theory of contrail formation, called the Schmidt-Appleman Criterion that is still accepted today. • The accepted theory of the two scientists “showed that the threshold temperature depended on the ambient pressure, temperature and humidity outside of the aircraft, and on the ratio of water vapor and heat released into the atmosphere by the aircraft exhaust.” Appleman published a chart that is used to determine if and when aircraft produce contrails. • One of the biggest events that allowed scientists to observe the absence of contrails happened after the attacks on America on September 11, 2001. The skies were cleared of traffic, except for a few military aircraft, for approximately 2 days. Even after these observations, there is still not a definitive answer among scientists about the effects of contrails on the environment.
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