Saturday, July 9, 2011

Contrail “Contrails (short for “condensation trails”)


“Contrails (short for “condensation trails”) or vapour trails are artificial clouds that are the visible trails of condensed water vapour made by the exhaust of aircraft engines. As the hot exhaust gases cool in the surrounding air they may precipitate a cloud of microscopic water droplets or, if the air is cold enough, tiny ice crystals.

The wingtip vortices which trail from the wingtips and wing flaps of aircraft are sometimes partly visible due to condensation in the cores of the vortices. Each vortex is a mass of spinning air and the air pressure at the centre of the vortex is very low. These wingtip vortices are not the same as contrails. Depending on atmospheric conditions, contrails may be visible for only a few seconds or minutes, or may persist for many hours which may affect climate”. – Wikipedia
The Eurofighter Typhoon military jet flies during a demonstration at the 46th Paris Air Show June 13, 2005 in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)




An aircraft flies through London skies leaving a vapour trail on February 2, 2007 in London, England. When burning its fuel, planes release exhaust fumes which contain, among others, water vapour and impurities. When these gases come into contact with the cold air, the significant temperature difference causes the water on the impurities to condense and turn to ice. Aircraft exhaust fumes have been attributed to climate change. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)






An airplane leaves a vapor trail as it flies on February 4, 2007 above Hanover, Germany. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)






An airplane leaves a vapor trail as it flies in front of he moon on January 17, 2007 above Hanover, Germany. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)






A Warbirds T6 trainer casts his shadow on a team members smoke trail during the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow on April 23, 2008 in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)


















The Red Arrows go through one of their aerobatic displays as Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, the first ever female Red Arrows pilot takes to the air for the media during the launch of the 2010 team line-up at RAF Scampton on November 12, 2009 in Lincoln, England. Flight Lieutenant Moore, from Lincolnshire, makes history by becoming the first female Red Arrow pilot. Earlier in her RAF career, the 31-year-old served as a Qualified Flying Instructor, teaching students to fly the advanced fast jet trainer at RAF Valley, before flying the Tornado GR4 on operations in Iraq. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)






Three T6 Texan, Skywriting «Oi» perform during the Red Bull Air Race Day on May 9, 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images for Red Bull Air Race)

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