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Do contrails seek clear skies?

Heldmann, Cecilia LU (2014) FYSK01 20141
Department of Physics
Combustion Physics
Abstract
Contrails are the visible line-shaped clouds that can be seen to form behind aircrafts if the air is saturated with respect to liquid. Furthermore, if the air is supersaturated with respect to ice, the contrails can develop into contrail-cirrus that affect the radiative forcing, locally up to an annual average of 1000 mWm-2 over Europe. Central Europe is especially exposed to contrails due to the frequent aviation and also because of trajectories drifting in towards central Europe from the North Atlantic. Previous results showing that contrails drift towards clear skies are confirmed by analyses of the mean radiances and trajectory movement, for initial random starting points over central Europe both for two individual months and three... (More)
Contrails are the visible line-shaped clouds that can be seen to form behind aircrafts if the air is saturated with respect to liquid. Furthermore, if the air is supersaturated with respect to ice, the contrails can develop into contrail-cirrus that affect the radiative forcing, locally up to an annual average of 1000 mWm-2 over Europe. Central Europe is especially exposed to contrails due to the frequent aviation and also because of trajectories drifting in towards central Europe from the North Atlantic. Previous results showing that contrails drift towards clear skies are confirmed by analyses of the mean radiances and trajectory movement, for initial random starting points over central Europe both for two individual months and three months combined. By time- shifting the initial starting points of the two individual months the possible reasons for the phenomenon are discussed. The increase of radiance along the trajectories might either be due to convective areas that push the trajectories toward areas of descending air or it might be due to the fact that the general tendency is drifting towards east where it normally is clearer skies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Heldmann, Cecilia LU
supervisor
organization
course
FYSK01 20141
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Contrails, condensation trails, clouds, meteorology, convective areas, clear skies, wind field, radiative forcing
language
English
id
4460479
date added to LUP
2014-07-04 09:46:56
date last changed
2014-10-22 10:04:01
@misc{4460479,
  abstract     = {{Contrails are the visible line-shaped clouds that can be seen to form behind aircrafts if the air is saturated with respect to liquid. Furthermore, if the air is supersaturated with respect to ice, the contrails can develop into contrail-cirrus that affect the radiative forcing, locally up to an annual average of 1000 mWm-2 over Europe. Central Europe is especially exposed to contrails due to the frequent aviation and also because of trajectories drifting in towards central Europe from the North Atlantic. Previous results showing that contrails drift towards clear skies are confirmed by analyses of the mean radiances and trajectory movement, for initial random starting points over central Europe both for two individual months and three months combined. By time- shifting the initial starting points of the two individual months the possible reasons for the phenomenon are discussed. The increase of radiance along the trajectories might either be due to convective areas that push the trajectories toward areas of descending air or it might be due to the fact that the general tendency is drifting towards east where it normally is clearer skies.}},
  author       = {{Heldmann, Cecilia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Do contrails seek clear skies?}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}