the.com/vapor trail
the sky's receipt for a plane that already left the building.
means The visible streak of condensed water vapor or ice crystals left in the wake of an aircraft flying at high altitude.
from A plain compound of "vapor" and "trail." "Vapor" comes from Latin "vapor," meaning steam or exhalation, and "trail" descends from Old French "trailler" (to tow or drag), itself rooted in the idea of something dragged behind. The phrase is a 20th-century coinage that arrived with high-altitude flight — engineers and aviators needed a name for the long white smears jets scrawl across the sky. The more technical sibling is "contrail," a tidy clipping of "condensation trail."
- made of
- ice crystals, not smoke or exhaust
- needs cold
- forms only in frigid, humid high air
- climate effect
- trap heat, warming more than the fuel burned
- 9/11 gap
- grounded flights briefly altered US temperature swings
- real name
- scientists call them contrails, short for condensation trails
contrails from concorde — supersonic aircraft created distinctive double contrails at 60,000 feet until 2003
space shuttle columbia reentry — visible vapor trail across texas sky on february 1, 2003 during fatal reentry