Circles in the sky

[rogcal]

In respect of the weather sat image posted earlier in this thread, I posted it on a local non aviation forum and described the concentric contrails as being formed over East Anglia and blown over the North Sea by a SW wind but a reader of that forum has posted a differing opinion and contends the contrails were formed over the North Sea and were blown towards East Anglia by a NE wind.

As there is no date on the satellite image I cannot look in the weather archive to confirm the wind direction either way.

Help!

[Doctor Cruces]

Rogcal,

They seem to be formed over the North Sea as they get more dispersed as the head over Eastern England.

[Melchett01]

They seem to be formed over the North Sea as they get more dispersed as the head over Eastern England.

If you work on the assumption that a new contrail will be a lot tighter and better defined than an old contrail which has been subjected to the wind, then the contrails over the North Sea are a lot tighter (like a sharp pencil) than those over Essex / Sussex (like a smudged charcoal line).

If that were the case, it would suggest the contrails originated overland with the latest contrails at the time of imaging being over the North Sea i.e a SW-NE track.

However, I think the image was taken on 15 Apr 1993 if its the same one as I found on another old thread. That one looked like EO / false colour where as this one is a radar image, so I can't be 100% certain.

[Willard Whyte]

The contrails of the North Sea do look tighter, and appear to 'originate' from a known orbit area in the N. Sea. The contrails over land, however, do not correspond to a designated orbit area.

The picture suggests the aircraft had orbited over a dozen times and, with each orbit taking the same time in minutes as is the radius of the orbit @300kts, thus making the total time in the observed orbit as around 3 hours. The vector of the contrail therefore suggests a prevailing wind at altitude of ~030 degrees @60 kts.

All very '-ish', maths-wise, I should add.

[Wensleydale]

As E-3 orbits are situated away from airways and areas of high activity, it would seem logical that the orbit is over the N.Sea.... it would be most unusual for an E-3 to be sitting over the Home Counties.

[Pontius Navigator]

Do they orbit the other way south of the equator?

I'll have to try harder - ty WW, YG and Melchett.

I thought the dome rotation had to be changed every 100 turns as it would either over tighten too tight or unscrew and come off./

[TEEEJ]

Rogcal,

Sequence of 2009 satellite images showing contrails from an RAF E-3 Sentry off the east coast of the UK.

BBC News - How aircraft contrails form cloud

Source

Circular aircraft contrails off the east coast of England - DSRS Image Gallery

From

Aircraft Contrails images - DSRS Image Gallery

DSRS Image Gallery

[TEEEJ]

Nice to see members of the USAF playing with the chemtrail community! The chemtrail buffoons actually thought the KC-10 crewmember was a whistleblower!

The original "KC-10 spreading chemtrails" spoof video

The video shows a KC-10 forming an aerodynamic contrail.



KC-10 aircrew channel

USAFFEKC10A's Channel - YouTube

Italian chemtrail buffoon and his manipulation of the video. The nozzles!

The insider: chemtrails KC-10 sprayer air to air - The proof



KC-10 aircrew response

[orca]

Given that the contrails can be seen both from the ground and from space surely any self-respecting crew would be trying their utmost to stop merely giving us circles and draw a massive cock in the wide blue yonder?

[PPRuNeUser0139]

You mean à la J**k B****?

[Milo Minderbinder]

So what no-ones explained is how do all these create the associated phenomema of crop circles?
Surely one of you whistle blowers can answer that one for us?

[Willard Whyte]

orca, I tried to persuade the pilots to do so on many occasions, to no avail.

[Willard Whyte]

I thought the dome rotation had to be changed every 100 turns as it would either over tighten too tight or unscrew and come off./

And 'twas similar reasoning used by myself to explain certain 'random' navigational maneuvers.

Cost me a sh1t load of beer tokens after landing though.

[BEagle]

.....draw a massive cock in the wide blue yonder?

There was a tale regarding some RAFVR pilot doing just that one Sunday morning over Scotland. This piece of aeronautical art then drifted gently over Edinburgh, greatly upsetting religious sensitivities on the Sabbath.

Some very senior Jockistani god-botherer rang Leuchars and explained that his flock were rather miffed at the obscene item floating overhead. "Very sorry", he was told, "we'll sort it out!". A significant number of Meteors launched, then formed up in line abreast before flying through the floating cock. Some deft manoeuvring and they reappeared at 90º off the earlier attack heading, completed the task and went home for tea.

The result being that, if no-one had loooked up and noticed the aerial phenomenon in the first place, they certainly saw it after the attempt to cross it out!

As I said, a tale. It may not be true, but I'd like to think that it is!