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When all aircraft were grounded over the USA after 9-11, the temperature over the USA spiked 1.1 degrees above expected. It then fell back when flights resumed.
by antipaganda 17y ago
When all aircraft were grounded over the USA after 9-11, the temperature over the USA spiked 1.1 degrees above expected. It then fell back when flights resumed.
It turns out that the contrails left by aircraft bounce some of the solar radiation back into space before it reaches the ground, which stops it being converted into infra-red and being trapped in the atmosphere.
So if global aviation ceased entirely, it would help global warming along quite a bit. Of course, the emissions would be gone, but their effect is long-term...
- hugh3 17y agoGot a source on that? Any strong evidence that it was a true temperature spike due to that effect rather than... y'know, the usual week-to-week fluctuations of weather?
- JeremyBanks 17y agohttp://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/08/07/contrails.climate/ http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/08/07/contrails.cl... It has nothing to do with global warming, but it's a true story.
- celoyd 17y agoWhoa there. Contrails do bounce a lot of radiation back in the short term, but you haven’t showed that they balance the greenhousing effect of the exhaust gasses over the long term.
- joubert 17y agoThere's a difference between climate and temperature.
- infinite8s 17y agoYou're forgetting about all the radiation being reflected by the volcanic ash in the upper atmosphere around most of northwestern Europe.
- antipaganda 16y agoIt depends. The volcanic ash might be dark enough to - on balance - absorb heat, like the brown cloud over Southern Asia does. I'm not aware of work that's been done on that. However, good point - hadn't thought of that. Maybe Gaia is swatting planes. :D