Note "Black Streak" On Cloud At Bottom Left
Contrails --
Atmospheric Optical Effects
Mysteries Abound....In These Skies...
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PC Shadow Cast On PC Haze
Monroe, MI
Note "Black Streak" On Cloud At Bottom Left
What Was This Caused By?
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Shadows or Twisting Contrails?
Sent By Aleena Diamond
www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/7180
Aleena: I didn't see what kind of plane it was.. I saw it out of my office window, so ran outside to get a picture of it. I didn't even notice the "twist" till I sent the picture to a friend of mine and she mentioned it... butI did see it in the picture and thought it was weird. I thought it was a shadow when I took thepicture.. but I have never seen a contrail shadow before, now that I think about it. Hmmm.. the sun would have been just out of sight on the left of the picture..but the day was soovercast that you could barely see it shining through the clouds.
Something to ponder.....
Cropped Enhanced View of Aleena's Photo (Brightness/Contrast Only)
Further Photo Enhancement (Solarization)
Enhanced Embossed View Of The Above Version
[Note the Patchwork Contrails Above With Smaller Trails Running Through Them]
Commentary
It appears that either a contrail shadow is twisting around a single contrail...
there is a double contrail that is twisting -- one darker that the other...
or
perhaps there are two separate contrails created by two separate craft or objects
twisting around one another...
Wind shear can twist contrails but there is usually significant "shearing", tearing or
spreading associated with this process...These trails appear to remain in tact
throughout their journey across the sky....
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Strange "Shadow" Shoots Out
In Front Of Persistent Contrail
See Report Below
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Popcorn Trail Shadow On Sky "Canvas"
Sent By Aleena Diamond
www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/7180
Typical Popcorn Blossoms On Persistent Contrail...
But Look At That Shadow Cast Onto A Blanket Of
Contrail Created White Haze!
Truly Has A Surreal Quality To It...
Solarized For Detail
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Is The Contrail's Shadow Above Beside or
Below The Contrail?
Photos #5-6 Provided By John Combest - Director of HUFON
Taken Over Houston, Texas on March 20, 2000
[see Report Below--Photos #3-4 Will Be Posted Soon]
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Note As The Contrail Appears To Move Through The Clouds
At Some Points--The Shadow Seems To Fade Out
Is There A Thin Haze Below The Contrail Catching the Shadow?
Or Is The Shadow Somehow Being Cast Up Onto The Clouds?
Submit Your Ideas On This Subject!
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Contrail Shadow Or Shadow Of Something Else?
A "Solarized" View of Photo #6
In This Cropping of Photo #6 One Can See Another "Shadow"
Well To This Side And Perhaps Above The Contrail
That Seems To Swoop--Curving Around Toward The Contrail
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Contrail Effect Reports
Contrail Shadows Cast In Front Of Plane?
Aurora Contrail and "Earth Glow"
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Report By Amy Hebert, M.Ed. (UFO Researcher)
I was getting out of my car and the moon was behind me so
I turned to look up and saw a fat contrail below and to the left of the
moon. To the left of that contrail and higher up was a cloud and on that
cloud was the shadow of the contrail below it. Now, I stood there for a
while trying to figure out what was not right about this. My kids kept
bugging me to get out of the middle of the street (it's not a busy street
anyway). They looked up too but just figured I was into my "moon-watching"
or "contrail-watching" modes. Anyway, it looked simple enough but what
confused me was that the moon was far up - beyond the earth, the cloud was
high in the atmosphere and the contrail was below that. So....how come the
shadow of the contrail was reflecting on the cloud ABOVE it? This defies
the laws of nature as I know them ....
If the moon was above the cloud, the cloud was high in the atmosphere and
the contrail was below that, it's shadow should not be reflecting on the
cloud above and to the left of it. It was not right.? I just stood there
trying to find some explanation for this effect but couldn't figure it out.
Maybe the light from the moon was bouncing off the contrail on to the
cloud, I don't know. ? I've never seen this kind of effect in my entire
life. Whatever it is causing this, I think it is rather recent as I've
spent most of my life looking up at the sky - especially at night (amateur
astronomer) - and do not recall ever seeing this effect before.
I'll tell ya, those shadow-effects I've seen three times now are among the
strangest things I've ever seen. I've seen some pretty wierd stuff. I'm
getting use to just standing there scratching my head...
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Contrail Shadows Cast In Front of Plane?
Brenda Livingston (PC-UFO Researcher)
Just went outside -- saw some contrails and "cloud" remnants moving overhead and decided to
watch the high flying aircraft up there. Saw one normal contrail and aircraft approaching from
the northeast about to go through a contrail and remnants -- as it did its contrail became
suddenly persistent -- like the substance in the air made that happen.
Then as it crossed pass the sun -- was just below it to the west with "cloud" remnants behind it
-- it started displaying a double (like contrail) shadows in front of it. They would go on and
off -- and then when it went past the remnants that effect stopped and the plane's contrail went
back to normal.
You mentioned seeing the shadow in front of a plane -- I had never seen anything like this! Something else! How does this stuff bounce a shadow in front of a plane???
=========>>>=====
Just thinking about the shadows of contrails suddenly appearing in front of the planes....
If this substance in the contrails & remnants is of a particular
chemical structure -- and has a prism effect... then perhaps the sun's
light is moving through it and refracting... creating a shadow on the
substance remnant on the side of the plane closest to the viewer --
which would appear as if it were in front of the plane.
Like the plane is moving through the stuff with some of it on either
side. The sun's light hits the contrail and/or remnant of contrails
past -- and the light refracts and as it refracts the shadow of the
contrail is projected onto the remnant "cloud" in front and onto the
part closest to us... ???
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A friend and I were watching as an aircraft laying a PC crossed under the sun and produced a
long contrail shadow. One would think under normal conditions that the contrail and aircraft
would cast shadows to the ground at an angle somewhat toward the observers.
Instead only the PC shadow was cast and it was cast in front of the aircraft but angled almost
vertically to the horizon. The aircraft was at about 10,000 feet or a little less and the sky it was
passing through was saturated with a white haze -- presumably from all the PC contents and
moisture spreading through the atmosphere.
We were mystified... and started immediately trying to duplicate this effect using a piece of
white paper (representing the ground at first) and a pencil (representing the PC) and the same
sun. Could not get any shadow on the paper that looked anything like the angle of that PC
shadow we just saw... until I moved the sheet of paper vertical to the "ground" providing a
white backdrop. Then there it was!
It seems that the white PC haze becomes like a backdrop holding the shadow temporarily.
Really strange looking.
Then a little bit ago... I was watching an aircraft with PC moving in the same direction under the
sun at approx. the same time. It went under and past the sun. Then these dark shadow rays
became apparent in front of the plane -- but at only a slight angle downward and much shorter. The sky today is filled with PC haze... could barely see the aircraft... showed up better with a PC cloud behind it.
Now when I conducted this great experiment :> with this sun and this PC and white paper -- I
tried to do the same thing. When I used the paper as the ground -- parallel to the ground -- the
pencil cast a normal parallel running shadow on the paper. When I attempted to move the
paper to a vertical position in front of me -- the pencil shadow did not do what it did before --
it "bent" the pencil shadow upward... not downward at an angle. Of course it has been a few
days and a little difference in time -- so the angle could be different (not an expert on shadows
for sure!)
But I tried to get the pencil shadow to duplicate what I had just observed the PC doing -- and
could not get the effect exactly. The only way I could get something somewhat similar -- at
least with the angle of the shadow cast slightly downward was when I kept the paper slightly
angled upward--the front toward the sun -- and the pencil at a 30 degree angle upward!
Which of course the plane and PC were not moving upward at all....
Definitely something weird about the reflections, refraction and shadow effects up there!
I have watched the skies pretty closely most of my life... and there ain't no one gonna tell me
that these PCs are not increasing and producing unnatural atmospheric effects! I still do not
know why though...
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1. On March 20th I happened to notice a high-flying jet passing over
theHouston area while leaving a well-defined contrail of two closely-spaced
trails (one for each engine). There were high-altitude, thin cirrus
typeclouds scattered over most of the blue sky, and what made me take notice
ofthe jet is that while passing overhead the contrail was leaving a shadow
onthe cloud layer which was just below the altitude of the jet. But what
wasoptically confusing is that the relatively dense, solid contrail seemed
tobe below the altitude of the wispy cirrus clouds.
2. Cloud Focus: If you do much outdoor photography or have occasion to
usebinoculars very often, you will eventually notice that a cloud HAS NO
DEFINED EDGE. And the closer you are to the cloud the more that becomes
evident. That which appears from a distance to be the edge of the cloud
isin fact a region wherein visible water molecules range from being very
densein one area to another area several feet or yards distant where they are
notat all visible. You can most readily see and understand that effect
bestwhen near a fog which is hanging over a pond or pasture where you cannot
find a definite edge even if you walk into the fog bank. A fog is
simply acloud which has formed at ground level. Even when a cloud seems to be
well-defined against a clear sky - that "well-defined" edge may be
hundredsof yards thick.
Therefore, when you see a well-defined aircraft or its
relatively well-defined contrail near or over or under thin cirrus
cloudsyour eye-brain mechanism tells you that the better-defined object
(contrail)is closer to you than the poorly-defined object (cloud) because that
agreeswith the large majority of our visual experiences (the in-focus object
isalmost always closer to us). About twenty years ago I saw an
atmosphericcondition which I have seen only once and it occurred around daylight
timein Lubbock, Texas. The sky was covered with very low cumulus clouds
(600 to1,000 feet altitude), and conditions were such that moisture (water
vapor)originating perhaps from the dew which had formed over night on the
grasswas rising slowly like sheets of fog and going up to the clouds. It was
asif I were watching it rain IN REVERSE.
3. In the contrail observation made on Mar. 20th, I immediately
"observed"the contrail to be BELOW the thin cirrus clouds as if the clouds were
abouttwice the altitude of the contrail. However, the shadow of the contrail
wasin the cirrus cloud, and I immediately thought - "Wow, there's something
strange here!" It seemed that some how the shadow of the contrail was
ending up on the cirrus clouds which were at a HIGHER altitude than the
contrail, but I knew that under normal circumstances that couldn't
happen!
So I took a series of 8 photographs showing the contrail going from
horizonto horizon, and even the photographs seem to indicate that the contrail
wasbelow the clouds - which it was not. What is significant about the set
ofphotos is that in the western sky (origin) the contrail seems to persist
andis slowly spreading out, but into the eastern sky the SAME contrail
producedby the SAME aircraft was barely formed in some areas and was rapidly
dissipating in other areas! And those characteristics it seems are
commonto all normal contrails, i.e., depending upon the very local weather
conditions they may spread out and cause other available moisture to
condense onto the water droplets caused by the condensed water vapor
formedduring gasoline combustion in the engines.
Water molecules may alsobegincondensing onto the other products of fuel combustion as those molecularparticles drop in temperature. Of course, at 30,000 feet altitude the
airtemperature may be around 50 degrees BELOW zero, and the water vapor
whichcondenses into droplets immediately freezes. Colder parts of the sky
wouldcause the frozen contrail to be slower to evaporate and dissipate, but
ifthe very local relative humidity is high it may cause the size of the
contrail to expand as water molecules attach to the existing ice
particles.
4. The general observation of contrails suggests that there is a
relativelynarrow range of atmospheric conditions which cause contrails to form at
all.Over a period of a few months observations (recent December, January,
February) it was apparent that - for relatively identical weather
conditions - during one day ALL jet aircraft seemed to leave a contrail
ifthey were 4 to 6 miles in altitude, but on the next day (or later that
sameday) NO jet aircraft would leave a contrail! It may also be true that
someof the products of fuel combustion (hydrocarbon molecules) may (under
certain atmospheric conditions) cause enough moisture to condense that
thosemolecules become heavy enough to fall out of the region of the contrail
tolower (warmer) altitudes where they may dissipate, or the droplets may
reachthe ground as a form of acid rain.
That scenario might account for the
report by some contrails observers that they experienced a light burning
sensation to their eyes or skin. There are reportedly dozens of toxic
chemicals present in jet fuel, and all of them might not be disabled /
neutralized by the combustion process - or others could be formed by the
combustion process. Technically, a "normal" contrail is effectively a
"chemtrail" whether or not it is intended to have any effect on the
environment.
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John Combest (HUFON)
I have on not more than three occasions when flying in commercial aircraft and riding
in a "window" seat (of course) seen an image in the cloud below the aircraft with the bright
sun above. The image cannot be seen if the cloud below the aircraft is not relatively smooth (cannot be a very billowy, lumpy cloud formation).
Because of the physical limitation of attempting to view anything from a window seat, the image cannot be directly under the aircraft or it could not be seen at all. But the image seems to be brighter if the image is more nearly directly beneath the aircraft. I am calling it an "image" because it is NOT a simple shadow which I have seen as a gray shape against a white cloud.
The image has never been seen in fine detail as if looking in a mirror or looking at a reflection in a body of water - probably because the cloud's surface is irregular and not very smooth, and also because the cloud is not a continuos surface but a random arrangement of billions (? - not sure, never counted them) of small droplets of water which cannot present a detailed reflection.
Now I have called it a reflection, and it seems as if it could be a reflection of the bottom side of the aircraft inasmuch as with the best view I ever had - which lasted about ten minutes on one trip - it seemed that I could make out the fuselage of the aircraft and the wings although the tail section was a bit "fuzzy" if you will. But one effect which I cannot understand is that there is always a definite brightness all around the image as if the image were glowing - a brightness at least twice as bright as the rest of the sunlight on the white cloud.
That brightness could possibly be caused by the sunlight bending slightly (diffraction) around the body of the aircraft - somewhat like being slightly focused onto the cloud below. The image was so distinct on one trip - and far enough to the side of the aircraft that I was able to photograph it. No I don't know what happened to the photo ... that was several years ago. If there are any physicists in the crowd, you might offer some understanding of the phenomenon as reported.
============>>>
Wish we could get some good photos/video of this effect!
It could be that something in the atmosphere-- perhaps a property of
the PC haze/clouds-- could be displacing the light source-- so that the light
shines on the contrail (from its new position) and casts a shadow on a cloud where
it should not be.
I have been sent a photo which appears to be of a PC shadow on an
aurora.... Talking about scratching my head! I thought that auroras
occurred in the ionosphere--how could the moon shine down on the PC so its shadow
appears on something in the ionosphere?
Well, I suppose something could be moving through the upper part of
our atmosphere...making a PC... "Aurora casts shadow on aurora?" ;>
Maybe an experimental? Maybe a fastwalker? Maybe a meteor (tho I have not
heard of a meteor making a white trail which remains long enough to cast a shadow on
anything!)? The trail reminds me of something I saw this summer...an illuminated
effect...remember?
I speculate that the shadow is cast upon some haze/cloud below the PC
(that we cannot see in this photo) and it just appears to be on the aurora..? The
shadow is so consistent and strong -- it is almost as if a huge spotlight were
shining down on it --not interrupted by any cloud or other inconsistencies or wind shear--
with the aurorabelow whatever is making the PC.
What is really interesting is that the shadow of the PC seems to
follow the contour of the aurora! An aurora appears to make curtains in the night
sky...depending on the solar wind and the amount and types of particles that generate the
photon effects.
Billions of electrons in the ionosphere are hit by the solar wind and
make the Quantum Leap -- releasing energy and light... making this spectacular show.
Anyway--I am attempting to research the PC shadow effect area-- and
will let you knowwhat I find!
I think we may have to take a Quantum Leap ourselves to grasp all of
this stuff! But then again... may be something exquisitely simple!
==============>>>
Aurora Contrails and "Earth Glow"
by Sid Pennington
Clearly (I think), elecromagnetic energy in the visible light range
had to be coming from below the trail. Well, some is reflected back into space
all of the time. In the daylight, it is blinded out by incoming solar
radiation. We are all aware of "moon glow" which is simply reflected EME from the
Earth. Talkin now about the glow we see on the dark part of the moon.
Now consider,...the Earth is lighting up the moon from ~240,000 miles away.
True, most of the radiation is reflected by the daylight aspect of our
planet, however there is considerable Earth glow from the night side as
well. At the altitude of the auroras, some of the daylight EME could be
comin over the horizon to add to the available night radiation.
Just a thought.
I must say the photo gives one pause. Has anyone done
some thinkin on whether or not this shadow stuff occurs more frequently just
after the sun has set or just before it rises?
If my little theory is close, it should be seen at those times more
often than the dead of night....
Assuming that there actually is a shadow ON the aurora, it would seem
... the light source had to be below the trail.
Thought provoking to say the least...hum.
====
Check Out
Atmospheric Definitions & Atmospheric Optics
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====
What NASA Purports To Know About Contrails &
New Cirrus-Like Clouds:
Earth Observatory - Atmosphere
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