Good evening everyone,
There’s a lot of jet contrails in the sky today, and that’s not surprising considering my proximity to Albuquerque’s Sunport (an international airport) and Kirtland Air Force Base. The contrails are the long, crisscrossing lines formed by passing planes. Unfortunately, many people don’t understand what contrails are and make wild “chemtrail” accusations.
If you’ve never heard before, the chemtrail theory is that some of the white contrails you see left by jets are actually chemicals placed there by the government and major airlines for unknown and assuredly nefarious reasons. These theories are outrageous, disorganized, and completely unfounded. Please do not believe them. This conspiracy theory is so pervasive that even well-meaning people will sometimes use the word “chemtrail” when they mean contrail.
How do they form?
Contrail is short for condensation trail. They form when air in the upper troposphere (the height jets fly) is supersaturated and below -40 F. Supersaturated means means the air holds the enough moisture to spontaneously form clouds, but lacks the necessary condensation nuclei. Condensation nuclei are tiny specks of dust or other material that are at the center of every raindrop or ice crystal.
The contrails form when water vapor from the jet’s exhaust cools and mixes with the surrounding air. The vapor condenses into droplets and then freezes into ice crystals, forming the cloud. Contrails can persist for quite a while if the humidity of the air is high enough. Eventually however, the contrail cloud will sublimate, transitioning from a solid state directly to gas.
A Climate Issue
Clouds are a tricky issue when modeling climate change. They can have both a warming and cooling effect. They cool the planet by reflecting incoming solar radiation and warm the planet by trapping heat radiated from the surface. The exact balance of this depends on the height of the cloud. Lower clouds tend to have a overall cooling effect and higher clouds have an overall warming effects. Contrails, as high clouds, have a warming effect on the planet. They can cover up to 10% of the sky in high-traffic regions. As we continue to battle climate change, contrails are yet another thing we will have to overcome.
I have found the greatest website for contrail information! For anything you could possibly ask, or for a scientific response to every question raised by chemical conspiracy theorists, visit contrailscience.com. It is authored by a pilot named Mick West and I cannot say enough good things about it. Please read it, spread the knowledge, and help me chip away at this ridiculous chemtrail debate.
Til’ next time!
~Wildcard
wildcard weather 
What a LIE!
I have studied the sky trails. There are con(densation) trails and chem trails. There is an obvious difference from those who aren’t DISINFO folks like you.
But to address anybody reading this (unless you delete it, which is quite likely) con trails USUALLY dissipate not far behind the aircraft. When an aircraft goes through a high humidity spot (in or near a cloud) the trail lasts longer because that water vapor in that spot delays the dissipation.
When (not “if”) a chem trail is laid out, the trail lasts for hours, making a long trail. If you’re really observant, you can see how chem trails do weird things as they spread laterally, with curliques from the wind currents.
So, what is the purpose of chem trails? I DO NOT think it’s about poisoning people because the particulate is too sparse. It IS about modifying the air so HAARP can change the air patterns, cause warming to melt the arctic ice, and make such things as the “polar vortex” wreak havoc with the weather and our lives (flooding and droughts)
Not going to delete anything. You’re welcome to think what you want. I hope you have taken the time to visit contrailscience.com and consider the arguments in a strictly scientific sense.
Good (as to not deleting my message). I’ve done LOTS of investigating and studying the subject. I have dozens of photos I’ve taken of both con and chem trails. Some days both types of trails are in the sky so the difference is obvious. I hope YOU have taken the time to look at the videos, including the one that shows some guys in a fast plane tailing another plane where it’s obvious that they’re releasing and cutting off the spraying.
Great post. I cannot count the number of times I have had to explain that “chemtrails” are simply clouds.