Contrails form behind jet aircraft flying through the stratosphere. Since high-altitude aviation is happening all around the earth more or less constantly, planes are painting the sky everywhere. (Here is one time-lapse. And another. And one of my own.)
Many contrails don’t last, of course, but many do, and together they account for much of the cloud cover we see every day. The altocumulus, altostratus, and cirrus clouds that contrails produce are now officially recognized as homogenitus and homomutatus, which are anthropogenic: owing to human activity.
And today, Eclipse Day, Delta is offering to fly you along the path of totality. Others too? I don’t know. I’m taking a few moments to write this before we walk up to our hilltop cemetery to watch the eclipse for over four minutes, thanks to our lucky location near the very center of Totality.
I’m curious to see and hear contrail reports from others now awaiting their few minutes out of the sun.
1:14pm—The moon’s shadow made landfall in Mexico a short time ago. Here in Bloomington, the sky is well-painted by contrails. Mostly it looks like high-altitude haze, but believe me: if it weren’t for commercial aviation, the sky would be solid blue. Because the contrails today are quickly smeared sideways, losing their form but not their color.
5:00pm—Contrails were aplenty, and a spread-out contrail did slide in front of the sun and the moon…
but it was still a spectacular sight:
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