Mysteries, Chemtrails, Aerosols :: Mysterious NZ

[Crakka]

While we don't very often see the kind of classic long persistent trails that ruapaka & others see spanning their skies in the less densely populated areas down south, we are certainly receiving our share of skyward activity in Auckland. You simply need to be in the right place at the right time to see some of the stuff that's going on.

One of things I've noticed appears that to be a common "method" in Auckland is the squirting out of short "sections" of trail that then spread and drift sometimes as individual "clouds" among the natural ones and sometimes as long sections of trail that look more like "the real thing" (no, not coke doh! PTs!) as they come overhead.

Here's an example that I documented over the course of a couple of hours as it drifted & spread out overhead. While I just missed photographing the actual "laying" of this one (had to dash back to car for camera) you can see the similaries to the couple I've posted before where I had my camera right at hand when the plane was there. The photos were taken from 3 locations over that time from Kelston originally in the first 2 then from two spots in Mt Albert fairly close to each other and then from Pt Chevalier in the final shot. The position of this one also follows approximately the flightpath from SSW to NNE and appears in an area a plane would have taken from Mangere airport in my estimation. I'm sure you'll agree there's some interesting stuff here as you can clearly see the "line" as it drifts and spreads throughout the duration. Some of these shots also show associated "spreadoutiness" that became more apparent in the wake of the initial trail. In the last taken approx 2 hours after the first one the line of the trail can still be seen even though it is spread out somewhat and merged with other "stuff".

Now if I'd have had a decent camera these shots would've looked a lot better I can assure you :wink:

[Crakka]

And for those that need a little assistance seeing the direction of the trail in that last one just look back after seeing the lines drawn on the following edited image -

[Niksta]

Primo pics as usual master :)

Looks like another lovely day in paradise for being bombarded with poison!
A quick question, does the wind disperse these trails easily or quickly?
Reason I ask is, we have a military plane fly over in the evening pretty regularly and I have been watching it for a few years now, sometimes the contrails lurk but not for long and it's strange to see the whole trail move with wind before dispersing.
One evening when there was no wind at all, all day - a part of the trail hung there for prolly a good 15 mins. But I didn't break out a beerium as it still wasn't a contender for a proper chemmie. 8)

[Crakka]

Simple answer would be no. What I've always noticed is that that there is 2 distinct levels where the wind is quite different - the lower level where "normal" clouds move along quite quickly and the "upper" level where these trails and cirrus forms normally are that moves at a slower rate. Therefore generally speaking these things don't change or disperse at anywhere near the rate of the normal cloud cover - moreso they just spread right out at a nice even pace giving a lovely coverage of whatever's in their makeup.

Makes sense to me that if you wanted to get a good coverage it'd be pointless "spraying" when the trail would just get blown away so the altitude would be important. It's something I've thought about in relation to Auckland a bit being such a narrow piece of land with a constant prevailing westerly (although we get longish periods of easterlies in early to mid summer when things change a little).