August 8, 2002

3:13 PM

The effects of jet contrails on climate.Taking advantage of a unique research opportunity brought about by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on America, when all commercial air traffic in the country stood still for three days, scientists have uncovered the first clear evidence. Link to British journal Nature article on subject and IPCC article.
posted by KevinSkomsvold (7 comments total)

and that ain't all!
posted by quonsar at 3:21 PM on August 8, 2002

can anyone really do a valid climate study with 3 days worth of data? they can't even predict next weeks weather with accuracy.
posted by reverendX at 3:49 PM on August 8, 2002

Interestingly, the scientists believe the contrails may have a net cooling effect.

Also, grass is more effective at reducing global warming than trees. Hmmm. Maybe the answer to global warming is to fly more and seed the runways with grass?
posted by daver at 4:07 PM on August 8, 2002

"Sept. 11-14, 2001, had the biggest diurnal temperature range of any three-day period in the past 30 years,".

Yes. Three days worth of data does seem to make an optimal study. Not sure if this was a freak occurrence or a valid outcome of the no-fly days.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 4:57 PM on August 8, 2002

sorry. should have read "does not seem".
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 4:59 PM on August 8, 2002

Nor do I think that 30 years is enough time to ensure that you can predict what the "normal" temperature should be. Nope, I think the article may be correct in its assumptions, but the methodology is bunk.
posted by ashbury at 5:18 PM on August 8, 2002

Related: In some parts of the US, it does rain more on weekends. This is said to be due to the effects of pollution, which accumulates during the week and dissipates over the weekend. A related BBC article.
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:34 AM on August 9, 2002