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Help NASA Count Contrails

Posted by timothy on from the look-there's-one dept.

Bubblehead writes "NASA is looking for volunteers to count Contrails in the sky: "We're looking for special clouds called contrails. We want students, teachers and parents all over the world to report the number of contrails in the sky on October 14-15." Contrails are usually created by planes in the sky - here are a few examples."

6 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. mm.. tinfoil .. by torpor · · Score: 4, Funny

    okay folks, we're gonna be disinfecting this planet soon, we need you all to go outside and look up into the blue sky all day, mouths and noses and eyes open, and count all the contrails you can see, take lots of deep breaths.

    mm.. kay?

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  2. volunteers by fiftyLou · · Score: 4, Funny


    WTF. Volunteers?? Do they honestly think we professional contrail counters are gonna take this lying down?

  3. Why? by captnitro · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I understand this is probably a good way to get people out of the office/classroom while educating about atmospheric science -- sort of like a solar eclipse -- but why on earth counting contrails? Is there a specific reason to be counting them?

    1. Re:Why? by xenoarch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Most likely some scientist in NASA has a pet project, lost funding to get satelite time, so figured getting others to do his work for him. Or they are testing reliablity of volunteers to do it. IE they'll count from Sat photo's then take a avergae count of people in same area and see how reliable it is. I do find it odd that they are asking right after the solar eclipse today. Coincedence most liekly but still odd.

    2. Re:Why? by Deagol · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Perhaps it's an informal atmospheric study of some kind. I recall that due to the complete grounding of commercial/private airplanes in US air space in the immediate few days after 9/11/01, there was a unique chance to observe the weather patterns.

      In fact, on this very site there was a headline about the results of the observations several months later.

      Maybe this is an extension of those observations. Maybe they will correlate weather patterns across the country to the paths of airplanes.

      That's just a guess, though.

      --
      Method of processing duck feet
  4. A social event by kettlechips · · Score: 2, Insightful
    And, perhaps, induce scientific hunger in the youngsters.

    It couldn't possibly be anything else. Had they picked something more rare to count, all the kids would drop it after ten minutes.

    Since a contrail is probably visible at any moment on 99.9% of U.S. territory, the danger of youthful boredom is cunningly averted!