[meteorite-list] re: Smoke Trail

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Sep 14 02:46:41 2006
Message-ID: <4508FAB8.1080702_at_wanadoo.nl>

> This time the white streak appeared to be heading down to earth at an angle considered foolish for any jet

?? Sorry, but airliner condensation trails can have any apparent angle in the
sky you want. Just a matter of perspective. If you see it apparently going
straight down it only means the airliner had been going directly overhead for
you, moving directly away from you.

The shadow effect you describe is, indeed, a shadow, on a thin cloud layer at a
different altitude than the airliner trail.

I keep being surprised that in these times of heavy aircraft traffic, people
still don't recognize airliner contrails for what they are. Every few months a
video of a "fireball" keeps popping up in news outlets that is just a sunlit
aircraft contrail. Weird.

- Marco

-----
Dr Marco Langbroek
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)

e-mail: meteorites_at_dmsweb.org
private website http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
DMS website http://www.dmsweb.org
-----

> A couple of weeks ago I saw something in the sky that I recalled seeing once ten years or so ago. A white streak, not unlike that of a passing jet, with a shadow of some sort beneath it. This time the white streak appeared to be heading down to earth at an angle considered foolish for any jet. The blackish shadow was a mere copy of the white streak, but below it. When I saw this many years ago, I thought of it as some kind of shadow cast onto something in the air that I couldn't see. But this time the angle caused me to think that I may have just missed the opportunity to view a daytime fireball. Thinking back, I now remember that the first time I had seen this there were several streaks of this nature. Something I recently read about dust has piqued my curiosity.
>
> Any comments?
>
> George Nicula
Received on Thu 14 Sep 2006 02:46:16 AM PDT