Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Contrail (Aviaticus Clouds) Forecast for Central Wisconsin: Great Day for Photography if You Want to Avoid Man-made Clouds

A wide swath of dry upper air slightly streak with areas of moisture but without any distinct boundary lines will be over the Wisconsin Flyway today.  We should have some hit and miss aviaticus trails tomorrow and Thursday as conditions become a bit more mixed and complex. I'll try to post an update if boundary sheets with moist air become evident.

Update: Wrong! Before noon the dry upper air pushed north and cirrus and sections of cirrostratus moved in from the a southwest front.  Only short trails were seen earlier but as the dry air was replaced small segments of persistent aviaticus clouds (contrails) were scattered about though for the most part trails remained short with quick dissipation. This continued to increase into the afternoon dividing the state into two hemispheres, the dividing line going right over my location. So looking north I would see clear skies, south thicken cirrus of both natural and aviaticus. 

A Boundary line is shown below but again the boundary sheet of moister air reaches further north of the line as this mass inches north so contrails (aviaticus clouds) and longer non-persistent trails formed.  Oddly, the meteorologist were all correct, we had sun all day as the clouds were too thin to block it. How much of the cloudiness was cirrostratus aviaticus is the question.  Natural cirrus were present in the early morning but the continual additions of nuclei to the moving boundary sheets may be the greatest factor. This is why meteorologist need to make contrail forecasts.  Sunny skies do not mean clear blue skies especially along the flight corridors.                                  

                                               Infrared Map: From NOAA Site



Moisture Map, Darker Area indicates Drier Air: From NOAA Site



From the Boundary Line Looking South into the Flyway


http://theorioninitiative2.blogspot.com/2015/04/contrail-aviaticus-clouds-forecast-for.html

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