Airplanes May Affect Weather Patterns

blankmange writes "Wired is carrying an interesting piece: '...for three days starting last Sept. 11, meteorological researchers were presented with just such an opportunity when the FAA grounded commercial flights nationwide for three days following the terrorist air attacks. And now it has emerged that the American climate was indeed noticeably different during those three days without air travel.' Seems that what we do on the planet may have more effect than we may ever know."

Comments

clouds [contrails] and their effect on climate

[dolsen]

here's a nice image that illustrates (from low earth orbit) contrails over a large area (Nova Scotia, Canada, to be exact). at the NASA rapidfire site [bandwidth intensive] you can basically pick any day, choose an image over the northeast of the US [approx. 15:00 to 16:00 UTC normally] and it's a good bet you'll see lots of contrails. they have to have some impact on at least the local climate of the northeast. if you're in the mood for some light reading you can check out several NASA reference articles about clouds and their affect on climate:

• Changing Global Cloudiness Clouds are visible collections of small particles of water or ice, or both, suspended in the atmosphere. They are one of the most obvious and influential features of Earth's climate system. They are also one of its most variable components.
  
  Aerosols and Climate Change Aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the air. Taken as a whole these particles tend to cool Earth's atmosphere, and are an important factor in global change.
  
  Clouds and Radiation The study of clouds, where they occur, and their characteristics, play a key role in the understanding of climate change. Whether a given cloud will heat or cool the surface of the Earth depends on several factors.

there's also a good page on how ship tracks affect climate

oh yeah, the NASA press release about the contrail study...