what causes the white cloud behind a jet liner?

Answer 1

The white streak is actually a cloud, though the aircraft is a normal jet liner and not a rocket. This white streak is called a 'contrail' or a condensation trail. The engine of a jet aircraft releases after- burners or fumes just like our cars and motorcycles.

These fumes contain a lot of water vapour. At very high altitudes, where the temperature is as low as -38 degree celsius (water freezes at zero degrees), the water vapour freezes into tiny ice crystals almost instantly before evaporating.

A contrail can spread out and form a horizontal sheet of cloud, as winds which blow at high altitudes blow it apart. It disappears eventually when the water vapour evaporates.

Contrail or chemtrail?
The fumes emanating from an aircraft contain several harmful chemicals which pollute the air at high altitudes. So, environmentalists have coined a new term for it - chemtrail or chemical trail. So much for the fairies' trail.

Answer 2

It's usually a vortex. The turbulence as the air passses the wing tips compressed the air, and squeezes the moisture from the air (literally making fog.) Since it's cold up there, the air can't re-absorb the moisture very quickly, so you have a white cloud streaming behind the aeroplane - actually 2 thin clouds that twine together as the turbulence dissipates (the separate trails can be seen best on lower-flying aircraft, or in conditions where there is little wind at that height.

Answer 3

once you run a vehicle interior the wintry climate, what happens at the back of it. you notice exhaust. even nevertheless the exhaust has gases in it a great style of the vapor is water. that's the comparable with an plane. often while the plane is above 30,000 ft or so the air turns into plenty cooler (the better you pass the cooler the air). while the warm exhaust from the engines cool off (that's extremely straight away at severe altitudes like that) this is form of like your vehicle's exhaust. The water droplets cool different than those ones actual crystallize which kinds the "clouds" or contrails you notice by way of fact the air is so chilly up there. So no, no extraordinary government gases. Sorry, dad.

Answer 4

"Jet contrails (condensation trails) are man-made clouds that form through condensation of water vapor in the exhaust of jet engines into ice crystals. Water vapor is a natural by-product of the burning of petroleum, and the amounts produced by jet engines are sometimes larger than the cold, thin air of the upper troposphere can hold. If the air is very dry, then a contrail will not form. If it is already humid, then a contrail forms, using up the excess water vapor that the air can not hold. "
All the best.
JT

Answer 5

The white cloud is not a cloud, but a trail of moisture laden air superheated by the combustion process, then quickly condensed as it is reintroduced to colder upper atmosphere temperatures. It is known as contrails. The reason it does not appear ahead of the engine is because the moisture is at a uniform temperature and evenly distributed in the air before it is compressed by the engines. After induction compression and combustion the exhausted gases contain a higher moisture content, and since it was superheated during combustion, what you see is its post combustion condensation as it is remixed with colder ambient air.

Answer 6

The "contrail" as it is known is short for condensation trail.
This is caused by rapid cooling of the products of combustion (CO2 and Water) behind a jet or propeller plane above 20,000 feet. The water vapor rapidly condenses and forms trails of moisture.

Answer 7

The air going into the jet engine is compressed along with the moisture in the air. When the moisture is exhausted through the engine, it is alot more dense (more mass per volume). Since the moisture is so dense, it is more visible in the cold air at higher altitudes.

Answer 8

The people who said it was anything other than condensation caused by the engines are incorrect and misinformed.

The hard part about those white lines being there is keeping the Dallas Cowboys from trying to snort them up.

Answer 9

aircraft flying at higher flight levels that go through the high base clouds (mostly cirrus) carry portions of the cloud with them.

however, during landing, the cloudy air mass that comes out of the wing tip is actually called wingtip vortices.

Answer 10

The speed of the aircraft will leave clouds of dust behind!