After a lifetime of enjoying contrails, it came as a surprise to me to learn recently that something so ephemeral may not be a harmless by-product of the jet age but may in fact impact the climate. This is of particular concern in well-traveled air corridors, where contrails by the hundreds can spread into man-made cirrus clouds that can both block sunlight from reaching the Earth and trap radiated heat from escaping to space. Whether contrails cause a net cooling or a net warming, even whether their effect is something to worry about within the greater general concern about climate change, remains unclear. But with air traffic expected to double or even triple by 2050, leading contrail researchers say the influence of these artificial clouds cannot be ignored. pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/contrail-effect.html A study looking at the climate forcing of contrails after 9/11 in the US. archive.tennessean/assets/pdf/DN146190117.PDF And a different view: nature/news/2008/081231/full/news.2008.1335.html
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 00:54:30 +0000
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