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Topic: Trails Over Afghanistan | Topic page views:
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Thermit
Tech

Houston, TX 2733 posts, Jul 2000
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posted 12-17-2001 09:49 AM
 While, the trails above are certainly (at least to me) just contrails from the U.S. fighters or bombers over there, the picture below shows two fighter jets with three trails behind. I guess these could be wingtip vortex trails, but I don't understand why there would be two coming off one fighter and only one coming off the other fighter... 
Pictures from: http://www.humanunderground.com/contrails-2001.html
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Thermit on 12-17-2001]

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Duncan Kunz
Senior Member
582 posts, Oct 2000
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posted 12-17-2001 10:05 AM
Thermit, I don't know either, but I'm not sure they ARE wingtip vortices. If you look at the first F/A-18B, one contrail apears to align with the end of his port wing, but the other does not seem to line up with a similar area on the starboard wing.If, on the other hand, those contrails are developing form the vertical stabilizers rather than the wings (as they seem to be on the forward aircraft) then the second aircraft's starboard contrail might be hidden behind the port contrail. Or, it might not. ------------------ Duncan Kunz / duncankunz@home.com Mesa AZ / 480-891-2525
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Duncan Kunz on 12-17-2001] 
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mark sky
bin Rydin

SW coast of Oregon 1089 posts, Jun 2001
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posted 12-17-2001 12:15 PM
Thanks Thermit for posting these shots, I was just about to send them to you, The one in the lower right was shown on the front page of Thursday 12-13-2001 Oregonian Newspaper shows "Vapor trails from B-52 bombers over the White Mountains" the lower right trail is shown bending to the left and stopping behind the soldiers head~ while the second trail makes a full loop~ I think its safe to say the "contrail formation attributes" of that air were similar.In the photo on the upper right (shown in the San Francisco Chronicle page A16 on 12-15-2001, near Tora Bora, the circular trails go round and round then stop in the middle of the circle. Again the air temperatures and humidity should be similar~ so are they turning off their engines~ or are they spraying something or perhaps "afterburners" looks to me like the "winners" are getting the same treatment us Americans have grown to love so much< and just in time for the winter "flu season".
[Edited 1 times, lastly by mark sky on 12-17-2001] 
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Thermit
Tech

Houston, TX 2733 posts, Jul 2000
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posted 12-17-2001 02:58 PM
quote: Originally posted by mark sky: ...the lower right trail is shown bending to the left and stopping behind the soldiers head~ while the second trail makes a full loop~ I think its safe to say the "contrail formation attributes" of that air were similar.In the photo on the upper right (shown in the San Francisco Chronicle page A16 on 12-15-2001, near Tora Bora, the circular trails go round and round then stop in the middle of the circle. Again the air temperatures and humidity should be similar~ so are they turning off their engines~ or are they spraying something or perhaps "afterburners"
Well, like you say that trail is hidden behind his head, the trail that you find 'missing' may just be occluded by the rest of his body. Not sure about the spiral trail, it also could be that the plane was not in a 2D spiral, but also climbing too, and left the large pocket of air that was favorable to persistence.

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Moonstar
Senior Member
61 posts, Apr 2001
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posted 01-06-2002 09:20 AM
A couple of days ago on TV on CNN they had a picture of ground troops in Afghanistan and in the sky two interlocking rings, like a wedding ring quilt in the sky. Looked just like these pictures!
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