RobBob Posted May 13, 2004 Posted May 13, 2004 Last week I had a sudden stab of fear while high over the north atlantic, parked way back in steerage in a crowded B767. I had just remembered a post one of you aerospace bozos made awhile back, about how small the bolts are that hold the aircraft engines on. Trying to calm my jangled nerves, I ordered up another Bitburger and stared out at the sky...and slowly I realized that there was a funny patchwork of wispy cirrus-like clouds around us, as well as several aircraft in sight leaving bright contrails behind them. It looked like the whole light cloud layer could have been formed from steady jet traffic, and it made me think about the hypotheses linking jet flights and cloud cover. So I read this latest article with interest. As someone who can understand best what he can see, this makes sense to me: web page Quote
foraker Posted May 13, 2004 Posted May 13, 2004 Odd, we were discussing this here at work just yesterday. :-) An addendum to this is that cloud cover over the US significantly *decreased* immediately after 9/11 and the cessation of air traffic. Quote
JoshK Posted May 13, 2004 Posted May 13, 2004 I just got through a unit in my geo class about the heat blanace on earth. It's amazing how much heating re-radiation (from cloud cover) provides. Of course cloud reflection increases albdeo (the % of radiant enregy reflected back by a surface) so I am not sure which one outweighs the other one??? My guess is shortwave radiation (like UV) passes through the clouds much more readily than re-radiated longwave radiation (like infared) can pass back out. Quote
fenderfour Posted May 13, 2004 Posted May 13, 2004 Last week I had a sudden stab of fear while high over the north atlantic, parked way back in steerage in a crowded B767. I had just remembered a post one of you aerospace bozos made awhile back, about how small the bolts are that hold the aircraft engines on. Trying to calm my jangled nerves, I ordered up another Bitburger and stared out at the sky...and slowly I realized that there was a funny patchwork of wispy cirrus-like clouds around us, as well as several aircraft in sight leaving bright contrails behind them. It looked like the whole light cloud layer could have been formed from steady jet traffic, and it made me think about the hypotheses linking jet flights and cloud cover. So I read this latest article with interest. As someone who can understand best what he can see, this makes sense to me: web page I'm glad I could help you fly more easily. Quote
Bronco Posted May 13, 2004 Posted May 13, 2004 OMG! the contrails! Did anyone else catch the trailer for "The Day After Tomorow" the newest Dennis Quaid movie? Aparantly he's an ecologist who carries an ice tool with him whenever he's in the field incase he has to do some one arm pullups on the lip of a crevasse. Looks good! Quote
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