Project Title:Contrail Formation in Southeastern Michigan School Name: Crestwood High School Teacher Name: Diana Rae Johns Student Name: Noor Abu-Rus Zaharaa Altwaij Grade Level: Secondary School (grades 9-12, ages 14-18) Project Description: Contrail Formation in Southeastern Michigan with Potential Regional and Global Impacts Abstract: This research attempted to determine the extent to which contrails formed by planes flying at high altitudes are affected by the presence or absence of large bodies of water such as the Great Lakes. Contrails are anthropogenic clouds that appear as streaks in the sky following the condensation of aircraft engine exhaust on aerosols at the cloud, higher altitudes found in the atmosphere where many aircrafts fly. Near daily cloud observations from August 2019 through February 2019 were made using GLOBE Cloud protocols and then the data was uploaded to GLOBE via the NASA-GLOBE Cloud Observer App and/or through direct data entry. This data was then compared with NASA satellite images using the information emailed to the researchers from LaRC-GLOBE-Clouds@mail.nasa.gov. Crestwood High School contrail data was then analyzed with data that other schools uploaded using the GLOBE Visualization System. The analyzed data showed that contrail formation was strongly correlated with cold upper altitude temperatures (as shown in satellite images). Protocols: Clouds Language: English Presentation Poster: View Document Report Page: Link
