Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Aircraft Clouds (cirrus aviaticus) Forecast for Central Wisconsin Flyway & German High Altitude Video

We have low cloud cover this morning in central Wisconsin along our flyway but indicators show that conditions do not appear favorable for visible aircraft trails (aviaticus clouds) in the upper atmosphere anyway.

Later this morning we should have partial clearing with possible aviaticus forming in the the thinner upper tailing clouds.  Also the local weather forecast calls for a chance of snow or rain.  So there may be some appearances of persistent aviaticus clouds preceding these denser clouds but overall we should not be seeing huge contrail events today.

In the video below from Germany, the guys used a GoPro and from an high altitude balloon filmed above the lower cloud deck. The film is for the most part sped up but once they get above the stratus formation they slow the speed down. Look carefully at 3:27 to 3:52 and it appears they captured a typical persistent cirrus aviaticus just to the left and below the sun!


Update: As clouds slightly broke in late AM, no trails could be seen during a period of busy travel. Progressively moderate breaking of cloud cover in mid-afternoon showed a thin cirrostratus had developed and one persistent and spreading aviaticus cloud. As lower clouds thinned, a long thin trails were blazed with durations of 2-3 minutes before dissipating. 

One interesting traffic anomaly. A line of west bound jets at 32,000-37,000 trailed by me and then tracked north a bit, then back south and back on their westerly track to Minneapolis as if avoiding something.  I couldn't see any weather on satellite that would explain why they were re-routed, just more cloudiness closing off the remaining blue. Turbulence? 

 From Flightradar24

http://theorioninitiative2.blogspot.com/2015/04/aircraft-clouds-cirrus-aviaticus.html

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