From the American Geophysical Union weekly highlights:

Estimating climate effects of contrails

Condensation trails, or so-called contrails, formed by freezing of ice crystals in the exhaust from aircraft jet engines could affect climate. Like natural cirrus clouds, contrails change atmospheric temperatures not only by blocking sunlight from reaching the Earth’s surface but also by preventing terrestrial radiation from escaping the Earth’s atmosphere. However, contrails’ effects on climate are not well constrained because only few studies of contrail properties exist, and hence, their microphysical properties are poorly known.

In a new study, Voigt et al. directly measured ice particle sizes and numbers in 14 contrails from 9 different aircraft of the present-day commercial fleet, including the largest operating passenger aircraft. They obtained an extensive data set of contrails from which they determined the contrail optical depth, a measure of how much light is attenuated by these man-made clouds.

They use their measurements to estimate that the radiative forcing of line-shaped contrails is about 15.9 milliwatts per square meter, which represents a small positive contribution to the anthropogenic global warming. Yet an expected doubling of aircraft passenger transport within the coming two decades will enhance contrail effects on the atmosphere. The detailed contrail measurements will help modelers working to assess the actual and future impact of aviation on climate.

Source: Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2011GL047189, 2011

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011GL047189

Title: Extinction and optical depth of contrails

Authors: C. Voigt: Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany; and Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany;

U. Schumann, P. Jessberger, T. Jurkat, and A. Petzold: Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany;

J.-F. Gayet: LaMP, University Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France;

M. Krämer: IEK-7, Institute for Energy and Climate Research, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany; T. Thornberry and D. W. Fahey; Chemical Sciences Division, Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

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Some basic science behind contrails from http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/wxwise/class/contrail.html:

The condensation trail left behind jet aircrafts are called contrails. Contrails form when hot humid air from jet exhaust mixes with environmental air of low vapor pressure and low temperature. The mixing is a result of turbulence generated by the engine exhaust. Cloud formation by a mixing process is similar to the cloud you see when you exhale and “see your breath”. The figure below represents how saturation vapor pressure varies as a function of temperature. The blue line is the saturation vapor pressure for ice as a function of temperature (in degrees Kelvin). Air parcels in the region labeled saturated will form a cloud. Imagine two parcels of air, A and B as located on the diagram. Both parcels are unsaturated. If B represents the engine exhaust, then as it mixes with the environment (parcel A) its temperature and corresponding vapor pressure will follow the dotted line. Where this dotted line intersects the blue line is were the parcel becomes saturated.

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NOTE: Any commenters that discuss or link to “chemtrail” discussions will have the comment automatically deleted. No exceptions, and no, I don’t care if it upsets you – Anthony

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