CIMSS Satellite Blog

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images (above) revealed a series of aircraft “dissipation trails” moving northeastward across southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois on 06 October 2019. These cloud features were caused by aircraft that were either ascending or descending through a layer of cloud composed of supercooled water droplets — cooling from wake turbulence (reference) and/or particles from the jet engine exhaust acting as ice condensation nuclei cause small supercooled water cloud droplets to turn into larger ice crystals (many of which then often fall from the cloud layer, creating “fall streak holes“).

A comparison of Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (below) helped to confirm the presence of ice crystals within the dissipation trails: a darker appearance in the 1.61 µm image, and a colder (brighter white) signature in the 3.74 µm image.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

from CIMSS Satellite Blog http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/34600