Contrail shadows

[MeteorWayne]

Please, no pictures....it's too early <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Here is a nice contrail shadow picture I took just a few days ago. The camera was a Chocolate cell phone.<br /><br />Note the local folks are reacting to the sight, too.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

{an aside regarding this thread}<br /><br />When first started, I wondered if these contrail shadows might mimic a view of Saturn's ring shadows above its' cloud layer a human might experience there. This thread was therefore started in ATA, the actual hard data we get to work with is contrails produced by jet aircraft, so a case could be made this topic belongs in technology. On the other hand, we are outdoors observing clouds and shadows in earth's atmosphere, so maybe this topic goes in FoN? Or leave it here since there is a specific request for input on an meteorlogical phenomena relevant to ringed planet studies . . . . <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[search]

Condensation Trail and Shadow<br /><br />Provided by:<br />Rick Stankiewicz,<br />Above southern Ontario on October 17, 2005, I was treated to a superb view of a condensation trail (contrail) and its shadow. It was just before local sunset (within an hour), so the angle of the Sun was nice and low, and the high cirrus clouds made a perfect projection screen for the “shadow” of the cloud-like contrail of a jet aircraft. What's interesting about this shadow is that you can see that's not a simple break in the clouds because the shape of the contrail matches very closely with that of the shadow. Note the odd bulges and irregularities of their outlines. In this instance, the shadow was about 2 ½ times the length of the contrail. When the angle of the Sun is too low the shadow gets stretched out and it becomes difficult to discern the shape of the matching contrail. This particular shadow lasted for almost 20 minutes.