What is chemtrails 2011

Global Ecology. Reference to Person:. Ken Caldeira - Emeritus. News Topic:. Neighborhood Lecture Series, D. Astronomy Lecture Series, CA. Similarly, the drier the air, the faster the sublimation of the crystal or the water evaporation.

In a relatively humid environment, both the droplet and the ice crystal can survive for longer: several hours or even more than a day. Furthermore, at this relative humidity level, the growth rate of the contrail crystals increases as temperature decreases. Figure 1 shows an example of the structure of contrails formed under different atmospheric conditions. Figure 1 The appearance of contrails in combination with different temperature and humidity conditions in the upper layers of the troposphere.

If the humidity is low at the flight level, no condensation trail is formed or it fades quickly top picture, Barcelona, September Conversely, if the humidity is high and the temperature is low, contrails persist and expand bottom picture, Barcelona, February So, temperature and humidity condition the appearance of contrail ice crystals, and these can develop and spread in environments that are saturated relative to the ice, causing them to transform into high-level clouds that can adopt the structure of cirrus, cirrostratus, or cirrocumulus Minnis et al.

Mazon, Costa, Pino, and Lorente propose calling the clouds formed by human activity anthropoclouds, introducing the prefix anthropo - to differentiate them from clouds whose origin is natural. Thus, the anthropoclouds formed from aircraft trails, usually called contrails, would be high-level anthropoclouds. The three basic types of high-level clouds would be called anthropoCirrus aCi , anthropoCirrostratus aCs , and anthropoCirrocumulus aCc , when they originate from contrails.

Figure 2 shows several types of high-level anthropic clouds formed from condensation trails. Figure 2 Examples of the three types of high-level anthropic clouds. The top right picture shows an anthropoCirrostratus, formed from the dispersion of ice crystals from many contrails, in the areas where the sky has a uniformly white colour, as in a large section of the bottom right third of the picture El Bruc, Barcelona, September The bottom right picture shows an anthropoCirrocumulus and anthropoCirrostratus refracting sunlight which gives them the «rainbow» colours shown in the image Viladecans, Barcelona, December Consequently, the fact that on some days more examples of aircraft trails are visible depends only on the air temperature and humidity conditions at the altitude at which the planes are flying.

Argument 3: Sometimes two aircraft can be seen, only one of which is leaving a trail behind. Indeed, it is not uncommon to see two aircraft crossing the sky simultaneously, one of them leaving a trail while the other one does not. The scientific explanation for this is that the two aircraft are flying at different atmospheric levels altitude. Mazon and Pino proved this with a numerical simulation using the WRF-ARW mesoscale weather research and forecasting model to analyse the atmospheric conditions on a day when almost the entire Catalan coast was covered by contrails.

Throughout the morning, the aircraft trails spread instead of disappearing; around noon, they covered the sky. Figure 3 shows a photograph taken in Barcelona at UTC 1 p.

Figure 4 left panel shows the domains covered by the numerical simulation, and the extension of domain 3 right panel in which line AB indicates the direction of the vertical cross sections of the atmosphere used for the temperature and humidity analysis. Figure 4 Domains defined for the numerical simulation left panel , and domain 3, in which line AB indicates the direction of the vertical cross sections right panel, in kilometres.

Figure 5 shows the vertical cross section along the line AB in Figure 4 right panel of the humidity relative to the ice in colours and air temperature dashed lines at UTC on the day in question. If humid air from the combustion of kerosene is introduced at this level, it could lead to the saturation and deposition of water vapour.

The humidity contribution from combustion-derived water crystals required at these levels would be much higher, so saturation would not be as fast. Figure 5 Vertical cross-section along the line AB shown in Figure 4 , showing the relative humidity compared to the ice in colours and air temperature dashed lines at UTC 1 p. Finally, it is important to point out that from the surface it is not easy to estimate the altitude of a given aircraft or discern whether two are flying at the same level.

Therefore, in view of the data in Figure 5 , if two aircraft are flying with a vertical separation of 1, metres, one will produce a contrail that may remain in the sky for hours while the other one will not.

Argument 4: Interrupted chemtrails often appear: they are not a continuous structure. The atmospheric conditions in which the ice crystals that form contrails are found can change both in time and space.

The numerical simulation performed to describe the atmospheric conditions on 21 September described above allows us to identify a great variability in the areas of humidity that are more or less favourable to contrail permanence a few hours before and after UTC.

Figure 6 shows the horizontal distribution of humidity at 9, metres left panel and the vertical profile of relative humidity and temperature along line AB right panel at UTC 4 a. Figure 6 Relative humidity with respect to the ice in domain 3 at 9, metres high left panel and vertical cross section of the relative humidity with respect to the ice in colours and temperature dashed lines following line AB shown in Figure 3 at UTC 4 a.

The most common aircraft cruise altitude is around 30, feet about 9, metres. Aircraft routes tend to be well defined, and to follow a specific direction and flight level, but they are not accurate. This can lead to contrails looking as if they were parallel or secant lines when conditions favour their appearance. On the other hand, cruising aircraft usually move at the limit between the troposphere and the stratosphere, where clear-air turbulence CAT occurs.

This type of turbulence originates from waves in jet streams, persistent air streams located around 10—12 kilometres high, moving eastward at mid-height latitudes. This wave causes wind shear and the emergence of turbulence, which can explain some of the strange shapes contrails sometimes adopt.

In addition to CAT, wind shears produced between the two atmospheric levels can make air move differently between them, causing the air and the ice crystals in the contrails to move irregularly and causing them to take apparently strange shapes. Argument 6: Toxic and anomalous smells and substances associated with chemtrails are detected at ground level.

Pseudoscience reporters claim to have detected aluminium, barium, and strontium as well as unusual bacteria in the soil, along with the presence of a chemical smell, below the chemtrails they observe in the sky. No scientific evidence supports these assertions, and no scientific publication has provided any evidence for these alleged changes in soil composition. Of the 77 scientists interviewed by Shearer et al.

In addition, any hypothetical chemical emission from high altitudes would not immediately reach the ground and, in any case, these elements would reach the ground as oxides which are sometimes already abundant in the soil. Thus, proof that they originated in the sky would still be required.

Every major argument made by the advocates of the existence of chemtrails and their associated conspiracy theories can be rebutted with facts about the physical processes involved in the formation of high-level clouds derived from jet aircraft. Despite having an anthropogenic origin, these clouds are made of ice crystals or suffused drops, just like natural clouds. There is evidence of the formation of condensation trails since the time aircraft started flying in the middle or high layers of the troposphere; i.

The temperature and humidity conditions of the layers in which aircraft fly allow us to predict the formation or absence of contrails, to explain the fact that they only appear at certain levels and their discontinuous appearance. The survey results show that 76 of the 77 participating scientists said they had not encountered evidence of a secret spraying program, and agree that the alleged evidence cited by the individuals who believe that atmospheric spraying is occurring could be explained through other factors, such as typical airplane contrail formation and poor data sampling.

The research team undertook their study in response to the large number of people who claim to believe in a secret spraying program. In a international survey, nearly 17 percent of respondents said they believed the existence of a secret large-scale atmospheric spraying program to be true or partly true.

And in recent years a number of websites have arisen claiming to show evidence of widespread secret chemical spraying, which they say is linked to negative impacts on human health and the environment. The research team says they do not hope to sway those already convinced that there is a secret spraying program -- as these individuals usually only reject counter-evidence as further proof of their theories -- but rather to establish a source of objective science that can inform public discourse.

Also, it is possible that climate change is causing contrails to persist for longer periods than they used to. We might not convince die-hard believers that their beloved secret spraying program is just a paranoid fantasy, but hopefully their friends will accept the facts.

Materials provided by Carnegie Institution for Science. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.