Contrail graffiti
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Contrail graffiti

March 28, 2009
This Envisat image over the North Sea captures numerous aircraft condensation trails, or 'contrails', as well as parts of the Netherlands (upper right), Belgium (lower right) and England (lower left).

Exhaust emissions from jet aircraft contain large amounts of water vapour which, under certain atmospheric states, will condense to form ice crystals.


Contrails can last anywhere from a few minutes to hours. They can also grow to form persistent artificial cirrus clouds that can last for days or weeks. Contrails and cirrus clouds could potentially have an impact on Earth's climate by trapping the Earth's heat in our atmosphere in a similar way to greenhouse gases.


This image was acquired by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument on 2 March 2009, working in Full Resolution mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m.

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