Contrails in the cloud

Four flew by

Jet airplanes on their way to somewhere flew through these cirrocumulus stratiformis clouds.  The airplanes are long gone; their contrails remain in the clouds as visible reminders of their passage.

Contrail in the front

 

There is an airplane there

This twin jet engine aircraft is transiting from the clear skies of a cold front for the cloudier ones of the warm front. 

 

 

Visible in silhouette

Having entered the warm front, the contrail from the jet plane began getting longer.

 

 

Sunset on the contrail

 

Sunset, a perfectly clear sky, a lone jet streaking overhead...  

 

 

Short contrail

 

As the sun sets and the airplane travels, its trail gets colored.

Contrail colored by the sunset

 

When there is low humidity in the upper atmosphere, contrails tend to be short.  The humidity level seemed to be just right for this overflight.

 

 

 

 

Three contrails of four

Changes in the upper atmosphere weather conditions affect the shape, length, and even the presence of contrails. 

 

Three to one to two

The contrail right in back of this airplane shows it is a tri-jet engine.  Those three plumes combine into one, and then open up to two plumes. 

 

Two plumes

This twin jet engine airplane leaves a distinct two plume contrail.

 

 

Another two plumer

As the upper atmosphere weather condition changes, this twin jet engine airplane leaves a shorter two plume contrail.

 

No trail nor plume

With the upper atmosphere having very low humidity, this twin jet engine airplane overflight leaves no contrail.

 

These four flights were seen in the span of about one half of an hour.

Needle eye contrail

 

Up in the sky

 

Barely visible itself, this twin jet engine airliner leaves a tell tale "needle eye" contrail in the milky blue sky.  The rather short contrail indicates the air is dry at flight height.

 

East and west contrails

 

Heading west

 

The contrail from a twin engine jet airliner heading west is colored by the setting sun.

Heading east

The contrail from a twin engine jet airliner heading east is colored by the setting sun.

 

The east bound airplane was photographed about five minutes after the west bound flight.  This was enough time for the sun to set even more and change the coloration of the contrail.

Contrail in the sky, too

 

Zooming along

 

A two jet engine airplane leaves a contrail against a high hazy sky.  This is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph. 

 

Contrail in the sky

 

Up above

 

This twin jet engine airplane contrail is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

 

Golden contrail

At cross angles to each other

The setting sun imparts a golden hue to the contrail of an airplane about to fly out of view.

Long and short of contrails

Atmospheric conditions cause airplane engines to form exhaust contrails.  These are caused by the hot and moist engine exhaust gases mixing with the cold air.   Long contrails mean the air at the flight level is very humid.  Short contrails indicate drier air and a lack of water vapor in the atmosphere at that altitude.  Very low relative humidity air will rarely produce a contrail.

Short trail

Long trail

In the two exemplars shown here, the contrails are produced by a four-jet engine airplane.

Contrail 005

Contrail, 007

High thin clouds hide the airplane that is making this contrail, leaving just the contrail to be seen.

Contrail 004

Contrail, 006

This contrail and the clouds seemed to have some rainbow effects.

Contrail 003

Contrail, 005 

Some contrails look like they leaped out from behind a cloud.

Contrail 002

Contrail, No. 002

Contrail from a two jet engine airliner.
 

Contrail, No. 003

Sunlight glints off the four jet engines of this airplane that produced a very short contrail.

Contrail, No. 004

Another "mystery" contrail, where the condensation is visible, but the airplane almost is not.

Contrail 001

Contrail, No. 001

The four jet engine airplane that is producing this contrail is just barely visible.  There is an interesting rainbow effect occurring in the middle of the condensation trail.