Jet contrails, from some angles, look like missile trails [View All]

[Ian David]

Edit - This post was originally from Jan 19th, 2010. I've updated it with information about the "Mystery Missile" contrail of Nov 8, 2010, at the bottom of this post. Clearly it's the same thing]

Edit again - I've mirrored this here as apparently my contrailscience.com server is crashing, sorry]

An interesting contrail cropped up off the coast of San Clemente, Orange County, California on December 31st 2009. The curious shape led some people to think it’s a missile launch, which it does kind of look like (all taken from San Clemente)


"Missile-like" contrail. Note this is the Dec 31st contrail, not the Nov 8th CBS one. That's at the bottom of the post.

<snip>

The idea that it’s a missile launch comes from three misconceptions. Firstly that the trail is vertical – it’s not, it’s a horizontal trail, at around 32,000 feet (about six miles). It’s the same as this:



This contrail is no more vertical than the road is, and nor are the power lines at 45 degrees. Everything is horizontal – it’s the just the angle you are viewing it from. All of these show horizontal contrails.

More:
http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/

Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/Lizardoid/status/2107483749359616


See prior thread:

Mystery Missile Launch Seen off Calif. Coast
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4607709