Contrails
Comments: 11
I only ever saw a contrail once in Australia. The sky rarely gets cool enough to condense anything so exhaust lines stay wrapped in the invisible cloak of warm atmosphere and we are generally deprived of the whispy akashic records of jet flight.
I was in the Snowy Mountains when I saw it. It was winter. It struck me as such a beautiful thing and I gazed up and mumbled “Contrail…,” wanting to voice a word I never ordinarily got to use. I’d first read the word in a poem by Gary Snyder (for whom the contrails of warplanes had more sinister connotations) but beyond whispering it to myself once or twice, I don’t think I’d ever used it.
But what a lovely word it is: the abrupt and vaguely military-industrial prefix “con” giving way to the benign, elongating spideryness of “trail.” The phenomenon (undoubtedly the most beautiful form of pollution) deserves a single word for a name – like cumulus or cirrus but with a hint of machinery to it – and “contrail” is perfect in the way it immediately obsoletes “condensation trail,” the latter fading from the language like the clouds now represented by this single, unfurled ribbon of a word, this neat and sensible contraction born of the American love of neologism.
In the high clear air of winter in Japan, contrails are hourly occurrences, blindingly white and solid in the rarified sunlight of 15,000 feet. They stream out from dozens of high-octane spinnerets then fatten and linger, condensing into long slices of bar codes aligned along the western route, as if wanderlust had been given its own UPC.
•••
Posted to General Rants • 2003.01.23 (Thu) • 11:25
Comments
Posted by resonance 2003.01.23, 14:30
that’s quite poetic, Jeremy.
I have a love/hate relationship with contrails. I too enjoy it when they expand, especially when there’s more than one in the sky.
They sure can ruin a photo though [unless, of course you’re taking pictures of contrails].
Posted by Stephan Schmidt 2003.01.23, 19:17
Where I grew up (south bavaria), there was a radio navigation beacon so every plane from north europe to south europe flew over our heads. In the summer there were tens of contrails every day.
Posted by Richard 2003.01.24, 00:11
In Paris, and in France in general, the skies are riddled with contrails. Your photo contrasts strongly with one I took a few years ago when sunrise revealed not just a wealth of contrails but a regular set of stripes being pushed along on the wind.
Posted by Val 2003.01.24, 04:49
I like ‘em too — but, living in the States, it seems that these days, there’s nowhere you can go without seeing them — I’ve been in the deep desert and the sky is still full of scratches. They appear on weather-satellite images, too — very interesting to see them from above!
BTW, I’m not sure I agree that a contrail is pollution — visual disruption, perhaps, but I dont think we’re introducing new dirt into the air, rather just condensing the wter vapor already there as the plane passes thru it. But IANAEngineer….
Posted by gak 2003.01.24, 07:17
after september 11, with the american airspace closed for a few days, scientists were able to take an unprecedented study of how contrails affect the weather.
science news has a brief writeup of the study’s findings, which show that the contrails have a measureable effect on preserving the earth’s heat.
Posted by Mac 2003.01.24, 08:17
the term ‘contrail’ is a new one to me. over here we just call ‘em vapour trails. saw a nice one this morning; i was in howth harbour, and it neatly bisected the clear blue sky above.
Posted by shauna 2003.01.24, 13:07
beautiful post :) they’re always streaking across the sky here in oz. scott is a big fan of them, when he was in canberra recently he was forever shrieking, “ooh ooh! skytrail!” :)
Posted by kevin 2003.01.24, 23:18
One of the few places you can be guaranteed not to see contrails is Antarctica (outside the American area), the few planes around tend to fly very low and don’t leave trails.
Posted by Billy 2003.01.25, 23:56
I live in Southern Ireland and being on the route from North America to various European destinations the sight in the morning can be very interesting as anything up to 6 trails can be visible at a time. The trails and aircraft are most visible in early morning and all tend to be headed eastwards. Presumably the westbound air corridor is south of the country and passes over water
Posted by Billy 2003.01.25, 23:56
I live in Southern Ireland and being on the route from North America to various European destinations the sight in the morning can be very interesting as anything up to 6 trails can be visible at a time. The trails and aircraft are most visible in early morning and all tend to be headed eastwards. Presumably the westbound air corridor is south of the country and passes over water
Posted by Robert C. VanWaning 2006.06.02, 20:20
Contrails lead to Aviation Smog. This not only reflects, absorps and filters sunlight (and other parts of the sun’s radiation, but which?), but also are a major source of condensation nuclei. Heavy airtraffic thus leads to more cloudiness and more (and heavier) rainfall (snow, hail). This aspect is commonly underestimated.
Please have a look at www.contrails.nl for hundreds of pictures of contrails and Aviation Smog over the past 10 years, over The Netherlands. (No chemtrails!)
Post a comment:
Send This Story to an Enemy
• • •
