graph

Measurements in Exhaust and Contrail

Time plot of 1000 seconds DC-8 data.
(Turb, blue) Turbulence
(PVM, red) Contrail particles
(CFD SSw, black) Supersaturation in ice nuclei (IN) chamber.
(CFD Temp,black) Temperature of ice nuclei measurements.
(bottom) Concentrations of CN (condensation nuclei, dashed red), nitric oxide (blue), and IN (green).

DC-8 ascended through exhaust-contrail plume from B-757. It was solidly in the plume for the first 300 s, as shown by both CN and NO data, and it was mostly above the plume for the last 700 s. Ice nuclei (IN) concentrations shown here are 1 second values, in order to compare with other measurements. But the volume of air sampled in 1 s is quite small, ~1/60 liter, so that most of the 1 s values detected zero IN (~95% zeroes). Consequently, when one IN particle was detected, the concentration is a single large value, ~60/L. These IN data do not show a strong response at -35C to the presence or absence of aircraft exhaust, or to changes in the chamber supersaturation.