These clouds are contrails, short for condensation trails. Water vapor is one of the byproducts of jet fuel combustion and will turn into ice crystals in the cold air at the high elevations where jet airplanes fly. Those ice crystals create a cloud (the contrail), which does not pose any public health risk.
Jets leave white trails, or contrails, in their wakes for the same reason you can sometimes see your breath. The hot, humid exhaust from jet engines mixes with the atmosphere, which at high altitude is of much lower vapor pressure and temperature than the exhaust gas.
Contrail, also called condensation trail or vapour trail, streamer of cloud sometimes observed behind an airplane flying in clear cold humid air. It forms upon condensation of water vapour produced by the combustion of fuel in airplane engines.
What you're seeing is mist — hot and humid outside air rapidly condensing upon contact with the aircraft's onboard air conditioning unit that creates billows of water vapor.
A study that looked at aviation's contribution to climate change between 2000 and 2018 concluded that contrails create 57% of the sector's warming impact, significantly more than the CO2 emissions from burning fuel. They do so by trapping heat that would otherwise be released into space.
"They make aircraft visible, you can see the trace of a flying aircraft," says Schumann. "So during the Second World War, militaries tried to avoid contrails because they wanted to avoid visibility of their aircraft."
They may not be chemtrails, but contrails can affect our climate via radiative forcing, disrupting the balance between the sun's incoming solar radiation and the heat being emitted from the Earth's surface. In other words, persistent contrail clouds can trap heat in the atmosphere.
Spraying the aircraft with very hot, high pressure fluid removes snow, ice, or frost adhering to the wings. Fluids are tinted to make them easier for pilots and ground crews to identify. The stuff typically used to remove existing snow is called “Type-1” and is tinted orange.
De-icing solution is a mixture of propylene glycol and water, heated to around 150 degrees, and sprayed under pressure to the wings of an aircraft. It's good for around 22 minutes so if there are delays in takeoff, another application might be needed.
It's condensed water droplets. Outside air with high humidity is reduced in temperature from 28 - 20 ºC (after going through a compression - cooling - expansion cycle), and some of the water vapour condenses since colder air cannot contain as much water vapour as warmer air.
Fuel dumping (or a fuel jettison) is a procedure used by aircraft in certain emergency situations before a return to the airport shortly after takeoff, or before landing short of the intended destination (emergency landing) to reduce the aircraft's weight.
While fuel dumps don't happen every day, they're also not uncommon. Nor do they usually represent a major emergency. In fact if an aircraft is taking the time to dump fuel before landing, that's likely an indication that the issue forcing the plane to land is serious but not critical.
Contrails last longer when there is a greater amount of water in the air; when all of the water in the clouds evaporates the contrail disappears. There are three types of contrails: short-lived, persistent non-spreading, and persistent spreading.
The hot and humid air produced by the airplane's engine mixes with the cool and dry air outside of the airplane, resulting in the formation of contrails. In other words, contrails are condensation in the sky that manifest as white smoke.
Contrails are not large enough to cause any weather on the ground. We tend to observe them in empty skies in high pressure situations when there are very few other clouds around.
Smoke released from aircraft was originally based on a mixture of 10-15% dye, 60-65% trichloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene, and 25% diesel oil, injected into the exhaust gases of the aircraft engines.
It's not uncommon to see planes being sprayed before takeoff. The spray is a heated mixture of glycol and water. It has a lower freezing temperature than just water. This breaks off ice already formed and prevents more from building up.
Rime ice is an opaque, or milky white, deposit of ice that forms when the airplane is flying through filmy/stratiform clouds. It is dependent on a low rate of catch of small supercooled water droplets. It accumulates on the leading edges of wings and on antennas, pilot heads, etc.
Water salutes have been used to mark the retirement of a senior pilot or air traffic controller, the first or last flight of an airline to an airport, the first or last flight of a specific type of aircraft, as a token of respect for the remains of soldiers killed in action, or other notable events.
Being in that dry, pressurized cabin isn't great for you or your body because flying is a major source of dehydration and it can expose you to a lot of germs. Lucky for you, tomato juice can help replenish your electrolytes — and it's also high in vitamin C to boost your immune system.
When oil or hydraulic fluid contaminates the air supply system, you will notice an unpleasant and unusual smell (“fumes”). Oil fumes are often described as smelling like “dirty socks,” or as being musty, moldy, or foul. Hydraulic fluid fumes often have a distinctive acrid odor.
Although slime is not a liquid, it's also not a solid and 99% of the time, TSA will confiscate it when you're traveling with a slime over 3oz. Meet the TSA approved slime - a set of five 1oz. slimes that are holdable and perfect for flights!
Contrails generate a net warming on the Earth's temperature by blocking approximately 33% of outgoing Longwave radiation re-emitted by the Earth. Avoiding contrails would eliminate this “greenhouse effect” and not increase temperatures.
A difference in flight level of 1,000 feet is enough for one aircraft to cause a contrail and the other not. In addition, contrails of more efficient engines with cooler exhaust gases can form at lower altitudes than those of less efficient engines.
Contrail is short for “condensation trail.” A condensation trail is a streamer of cloud sometimes observed behind an airplane flying in clear, cold, humid air. Here's what is known (and not known) about these man-made clouds.