Can Contrails/Chemtrails Form At Night?

Hi ATS

PLEASE FORGIVE THE POSSIBLE HUGE FORTHCOMING STUPIDITY.

Contrails are an oddball in my melting pot of conspiracies and so forth. And since I am not too good with the whole physics of them, I need the help of ATS.

I know I know, I could easily just go on Google. But then what is the point of being a member on this website right?

So, last night, I looked up to the pitch black sky, and saw what appeared to be a contrail from a plane, I instantly knew that in order for it to appear in night, whatever it was, it must of been more dense than the air to appear (Is that right?)

For some reason, probably due to my lack of knowledge, I thought to myself that they couldn't form during the night. I had the thoughts that the sun needed to be present in order for them to appear in the form of what most people believe them to be, a contrail. So with that in mind, my questions for you are:

1) Does the sun need to be present for contrails to appear/form? Or can they appear day and night?

2) If YES, the sun must be present, what did I see? (Bear in mind it was as clear as clear could be in the sky last night. I know there are people on ATS who live literally a couple miles from me and can confirm this if I post my location)


Thanks guys.

reply to post by brace22


You mean contrails right?

Jet Stream

reply to post by Wide-Eyes


CONTRAILS.


YES.


I will edit. Thank you.

reply to post by brace22


Yup, contrails are essentially clouds and clouds form at night.

The sun plays no part in the formation of contrails.

reply to post by brace22


No. All that is needed is low temperature and high relative humidity for contrails to form and as it's always cold at those altitudes the only variable really is the humidity.

reply to post by AlphaHawk


Thank you very much

reply to post by mrthumpy


Thank you!

I didn't think it would take long.

reply to post by brace22


Welcome. This explains it pretty well

science-edu.larc.nasa.gov...

Yes they can,I've seen them lit up by the moon a few times.Not as common as during the day but still possible even after sunset.

This is a picture I took at 7:20 am. The sun was just coming up. The contrails you see had been there a while.
Temperature, humidity, and a catalyst (the plane) is all that's needed. The sun just makes them look cool.

Thank you everybody for your help.


I wanted to get some confirmation before I could start saying the word chemtrail hahaha


I don't believe the whole chemtrail thing. Not ones you can visibly see anyway

Contrails are composed of more than just water vapor; even the most efficient of jets create chemical pollutions. These artificial cloud formations have an impact on the climate: reducing solar radiation and surface temperatures in that given area. The only thing that is up for debate is whether it is intentional or just another unintended consequence of human technology. So the term contrail or chemtrail are both valid labels since even water vapor is a chemical compound.

Gibraltarego
Contrails are composed of more than just water vapor; even the most efficient of jets create chemical pollutions. These artificial cloud formations have an impact on the climate: reducing solar radiation and surface temperatures in that given area. The only thing that is up for debate is whether it is intentional or just another unintended consequence of human technology. So the term contrail or chemtrail are both valid labels since even water vapor is a chemical compound.

I've just farted. Was that a chemtrail?

Whilst you're technically correct about water being a chemical compound it's best to stick to the term contrail as chemtrail is normally used to mean something completely different and you wouldn't want to confuse matters would you.

No. All that is needed is low temperature and high relative humidity for contrails to form and as it's always cold at those altitudes the only variable really is the humidity.

reply to post by mrthumpy


There are a few incorrect items.

Contrails and cirrus clouds in the stratosphere are both composed of 100% ice crystals. Temps range from -20F to -80F. The available moisture in the stratosphere is uniformly extremely sparse but of course, cirrus clouds do form. Jet exhaust contains H2O and some aerosols CO, Co2, S, SO etc.. The biggest variable regarding the visibility and persistence of the contrail is the size of the nucleus of the ice crystal. If it's only got the aerosols, the crystal will be a few 10's of microns. It may appear that something is evaporating, but it isn't really. Too cold. It's just too small to see. If there is dust available for nucleation, the crystal is bigger and more persistent/visible. upwards of 100 microns. IMO the ugly contrails are caused by (both) increasing amounts of airline flights and dust in the stratosphere.

The H2O is deposited at high speed, so don't be surprised when contrails continue to show some lateral movement after they form. The bigger ice crystals will fall to Earth so the cloud may appear to be precipitating. I won't say it's normal or harmless but it's not a conspiracy by the so-called TPTB.

Stop this chemtrail nonsense. It's destroying lives.

InverseLookingGlass
The H2O is deposited at high speed, so don't be surprised when contrails continue to show some lateral movement after they form. The bigger ice crystals will fall to Earth so the cloud may appear to be precipitating. I won't say it's normal or harmless but it's not a conspiracy by the so-called TPTB.

Stop this chemtrail nonsense. It's destroying lives.

It make so much sense when you say it. I wonder where the breakdown occurs?

reply to post by network dude


And if you want to see more contrails at night, this amazing website can show you more of them:
www.skystef.be...

Fair warning, it has a lot of pictures and will take a while to load.