Jet Trails Reduce Sunshine by Up to 10 Percent

The controversy and paranoia around jet contrails have led some to believe this condensation left by airplanes is "actually chemicals or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for a purpose undisclosed to the general public". Whether this conspiracy theory is true or not, Britain's Met Office has discovered contrails reduce sunshine. The Telegraph reports:

Analysis of contrails from one large military aircraft circling over the North Sea showed the creation of a thin layer of cloud that, at its peak, covered an area of more than 20,000 square miles...Globally, vapour trails are thought to cut sunshine levels by less than one per cent, but this figure could rise to 10 per cent in areas under busy air corridors, such as the south-east of England, according to The Sunday Times.

Given this new information, I wonder if busy flight paths will be considered when selecting solar array sites in the future.

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Posted by Jennifer Lance at December 3, 2009 1:40 AM