Plagued by contrails ... ? ... here's why ...

[Steve Ward]

Goes a long way to explaining why your skies just aren't what they were in the 'old days' .... 

Thanks to Stephen J for the link ... 

[JamesF]

That's really very interesting.  I don't reckon we see that many aircraft here though I hear more and I've often wondered where they're going to/coming from.  Looks like many are heading north up towards Liverpool or hooking a right when they reach the Severn Estuary and heading into Bristol.  I imagine the latter covers most of the ones that are really noticeable.  There's clearly an east-west path along the north coast of Devon and Somerset that takes traffic from the Atlantic on to London, too.

I reckon those RAF boys are pretty rubbish at sky-writing their names though

James

[callisto]

That's really very interesting.  I don't reckon we see that many aircraft here though I hear more and I've often wondered where they're going to/coming from.  Looks like many are heading north up towards Liverpool or hooking a right when they reach the Severn Estuary and heading into Bristol.  I imagine the latter covers most of the ones that are really noticeable.  There's clearly an east-west path along the north coast of Devon and Somerset that takes traffic from the Atlantic on to London, too.

I reckon those RAF boys are pretty rubbish at sky-writing their names though

James

Just google   http://www.flightradar24.com/54.75,-2.32/8,  scroll down to where you live on the map, and just click on any plane in the area to see where its from and going to

[JamesF]

Just google   http://www.flightradar24.com/54.75,-2.32/8,  scroll down to where you live on the map, and just click on any plane in the area to see where its from and going to

Now that is rather cool

I'm currently watching a flight from Tenerife to Cardiff that's just passing over Tiverton and should be with us in a minute or two so I can see how high it is when it goes over.

James

[laser_jock99]

Thanks for that video- it now explains for me why (in Mid Wales) I see loads of planes leaving the uk and heading out West (America) in the evening. Then there's seemingly very little activity all night followed by a continuous stream of planes (all on the same track) heading east in the early hours. I have often wondered about the 4:00am 'rush hour' of planes heading East. Clearly it is the overnight Transatlantic run arriving for the early morning European landing slots- checkout the video at 34 seconds in- there's very clearly a wave of planes heading in over Mid Wales! It's not shown in the video but I assume/observe there is corresponding wave of return flights in the evening timed to land in the morning in America?

[jnb]

Just google   http://www.flightradar24.com/54.75,-2.32/8,  scroll down to where you live on the map, and just click on any plane in the area to see where its from and going to

That's going to be a total time sink for the next few days!

[michael8554]

Just google   http://www.flightrad...m/54.75,-2.32/8,  scroll down to where you live on the map, and just click on any plane in the area to see where its from and going to

Terrorist groups must love this.....

[bomberbaz]

bloomin hell just pan out and look at the skies of america, its wall to wall plane....

(should that be coast to coast)

[jnb]

bloomin hell just pan out and look at the skies of america, its wall to wall plane....

(should that be coast to coast)

Not if you keep the same scale

[cathalferris]

Terrorist groups must love this.....

The information is freely available to anyone with a radio receiver and a pc to decode the signals. There's nothing really new added to the available information, other than actual location. Most of the other info can be inferred by skilled ground observers.

If people with missiles had used this site or another like it, it would be likely that there would not be a downed airliner in Ukraine.

As it is, civilian aircraft acting as troop carriers and military aircraft do not transmit these signals anyway.

Sent from my GT-I9295 using Tapatalk

[starman1969]

Do my head in these contrails, especially at night when they don't disappear, and instead disperse across the sky messing up the seeing.

I happen to live right under a major Atlantic air corridor, so the sky is very busy above my house.

[bomberbaz]

Do my head in these contrails, especially at night when they don't disappear, and instead disperse across the sky messing up the seeing.

I happen to live right under a major Atlantic air corridor, so the sky is very busy above my house.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1416578965.284178.jpg

I happen to live close to you starman but Jesus that is seriously bad.

Steve

[Kai]

I used to live in Canterbury , you could almost feel the contrails falling like rain.

[laser_jock99]

Contrails are a menace for AP. From my otherwise dark sky site, these contrails are so high ~30,000 feet they pick up the light pollution from towns 60-80 miles due south of me! As shown in this sequence.

[starman1969]

I happen to live close to you starman but Jesus that is seriously bad.

Steve

Yes it is. Hi Steve, it's Steve here from CLASS. I post the odd Astro pic or seven.

[starman1969]

Contrails are a menace for AP. From my otherwise dark sky site, these contrails are so high ~30,000 feet they pick up the light pollution from towns 60-80 miles due south of me! As shown in this sequence.

Very lovely image ruined by the reflection of LP. Shame.

[Sam]

I haven't seen a contrail in ages. The last one was close to the western horizon just over the mountains. Quite a contrast from the time I lived south of London.

[hippie]

Contrail pollution has got worse here in Dorset over the last ten years,

I can't remember the last time I last saw  clear unpolluted skies?????,

When I wrote to the minister for transport the reply I got was plane contrails are caused by ice crystals?,

However  watching these planes going over Daily (when we have clear skies which is rare these days here) only a few planes pollute the skies with other planes flying the same flight paths with no emissions coming out of them?????. (What is really going on?)

Maybe these contrails are to do with the weather modification programs  That these so called climate change scientists are playing around with?    .  (That I keep hearing about?)

[RichM63]

Luckily I don't have this problem.

Nice website link, there is currently only 1 aircraft over flying Brittany, although in the afternoon there should be some South West bound traffic.

[Phil Fargaze]

I have found that from my area contrails are not always a problem but sometimes there seems to be certain days when the conditions are right and contrails persist in the sky. Could these conditions be predicted just like the weather? If so, maybe a contrail forecast could be included in some astro weather forecasts. I haven't as yet looked into it much, but presumably when there is little air flow at the altitude of contrails this would stop them dispersing quickly. However nothing is simple with weather and I guess other factors such as temperature and air pressure might come into it.

[Macavity]

I suppose you could summarise it like this...

A tenfold increase over my astro-lifetime?

On lighter(?) note, I spotted a small plane doing circles in an empty Pacific.

Was a witnessing a tragedy in progress? I zoomed in a lot... It was orbiting

Guam(!)... With detours to (sight-see?) the neighbouring isle of Rota.

[JamesF]

Right now I'd be pleased to be able to see as much as contrails.  I don't think I've seen more than a fleeting glimpse of blue sky in a month or more

We should however perhaps be happy with things as they are.  After all, when fossil fuels become scarce and they have to move to electric aeroplanes the contrails will be nothing compared to all the extension leads running everywhere...

James

[stash_old]

Thought the oil rigs shown in the movie made a good star cluster.

Last clear sky (of contrails) was 9/11 + vivid blue skies. Shows how it could be I guess. Still don't moan at the rate satellites are going up you will probably be looking at a similar thing in 20 years time - unless they tidy space junk.

[jason.p]

Can be pretty though.

[DaveS]

No, sorry contrails are never pretty.

Got them all over my otherwise clear sky tonight. There weren't any last night and it was clearer anyway but my patio was flooded. Now the patio is reasonably dry I've got my 'scope out trying to get more data on the Pacman and what do I see? Contrails, Argh!