They form due to condensing water vapor as ice crystals, it’s dependant on temperature, humidity and pressure. It’s potentially the largest climate change factor from airtravel - not the burning of fuel, due to its own greenhouse effect (at least in the short term). But the jury is still out on that. The UK and presumably other nations are looking at reducing contrails through routing (at different altitudes in different weather conditions etc). So I guess this is accidentally not a bad idea but for the wrong reasons.
Because unlike water vapour in air, the ice crystals in the contrail reflect light (which is why we can see them) which causes a radiative forcing effect preventing infrared radiation leaving the earth, causing heating.
Adds mass to a quantity of air, more mass means that quantity of air can absorb more heat and hold on to that heat longer.
Ice crystals, like Palacegalleryration pointed out, work like tin foil in an oven. The crystals work like a blanket that reflects some parts of sunlight back to Earth instead of continuing out to space.
No, if a state is actually fucking stupid enough to pass this and has an enforcement measure airlines might literally pull out of that state because otherwise they’re going to constantly be fined for operating an airplane within the bounds of reality.
Is it even physically possible to stop contrails from forming behind planes?
They form due to condensing water vapor as ice crystals, it’s dependant on temperature, humidity and pressure. It’s potentially the largest climate change factor from airtravel - not the burning of fuel, due to its own greenhouse effect (at least in the short term). But the jury is still out on that. The UK and presumably other nations are looking at reducing contrails through routing (at different altitudes in different weather conditions etc). So I guess this is accidentally not a bad idea but for the wrong reasons.
How does the water vapor affect the climate?
Because unlike water vapour in air, the ice crystals in the contrail reflect light (which is why we can see them) which causes a radiative forcing effect preventing infrared radiation leaving the earth, causing heating.
loads more information
Adds mass to a quantity of air, more mass means that quantity of air can absorb more heat and hold on to that heat longer.
Ice crystals, like Palacegalleryration pointed out, work like tin foil in an oven. The crystals work like a blanket that reflects some parts of sunlight back to Earth instead of continuing out to space.
Yea we just gotta heat up the air enough, and the good news is we’ve been working on it as hard as we can for years
No, if a state is actually fucking stupid enough to pass this and has an enforcement measure airlines might literally pull out of that state because otherwise they’re going to constantly be fined for operating an airplane within the bounds of reality.
New item on the ticket’s fare, “Chemtrail Fee”, incoming.
you can do shapes where it doesn’t happen as much but i forget what the tradeoff is