GLOBE Earth Day 2004 Contrail Count-a-Thon
The Event
In celebration of Earth Day 2004 - and GLOBE's 10th anniversary - GLOBE participants and interested people all around the world were
invited to observe and report contrails between 11:00 and 13:00 local time. See the GLOBE Count-a-Thon page.
Results
A total of 215 observations were received from 3 sources: regular GLOBE observations, regular
S'COOL observations, and through the event website. Maps of total and short-lived contrails are shown below.
Clearly, most of the observations came from the US and Europe, with almost no contrails reported in other parts of the globe where
observations were made. Thus, let us look more closely at these two regions.
Europe
Observations were made covering a large area of Europe. Contrail cover appears to be maximum in Central Europe.
In this region, observers in Martigny, Switzerland, sent the following photos from the courtyard of their
elementary school. These were taken at 11:30 local time on Earth Day. As you may notice, this school is
located right up against the Alps.
North America
Again, observations were made covering a large area of North America. Here contrail cover is maximum along the
US East coast, where large numbers of aircraft fly everyday between the big cities of the eastern seaboard.
During my observation as GLOBE contrail scientist, I took this series of pictures of the sky in southeastern
Virginia.
There was fairly extensive cirrus cover on that day, along with some contrails.
An initial report on the analysis of GLOBE contrail observations.
