Contrails and Aviation Smog
Period: 19951999.

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Each day thousands of airplanes dump vast amounts of water (iceparticles), CO2, NOx and other gases, soot and aerosols at high altitudes. Airplanes thus weave a permanent layer of high cirrus around the globe. Aviationsmog (because that is what it really is) filters the sun's radiation and changes its characteristics, making sunlight whiter and sharper, giving it an extra 'bite'. Jetplanes also are cloud- and rainmakers: Icecrystals, soot and aerosols act as condensation nuclei, making clouds at various heights and facilitating more rainfall in some regions, and thus less in others. Aviation contributes to global warming in several ways and also to ever more extreme weatherconditions, from hurricanes to drought. All these damaging consequences are not reflected in the price of flying. It's the 'normality' and acceptance of it all that's so bad about it.  Most meteorologists, however, still rather ignore aviation-smog..