Contrails in a clear sky. Credit: hipproductions

Contrails over the Persian Gulf

15 December 2014 01:00–15:30 UTC

Contrails in a clear sky. Credit: hipproductions
Contrails in a clear sky. Credit: hipproductions

Contrails over the Persian Gulf were seen by both Meteosat-10 and Metop-A in mid-December.

Last Updated

06 September 2022

Published on

15 December 2014

The evolution of the contrails is best captured by the Meteosat-10 High Resolution Visible (HRV) imagery (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Meteosat-10 High Resolution Visible (HRV), 15 December 2014, 04:00-12:45 UTC

The Night Cloud Microphysics RGB (NCMP) imagery (Figure 2) also had some strength, although it lacked the resolution of the HRV imagery.

Figure 2: Meteosat-10 Night Cloud Microphysics (NCMP) RGB, 15 December, 01:00-15:30 UTC

The combination of them both (Figure 3), gives an even better view of the two instances of densely packed, aligned contrails moving slowly eastward from the waters of the Gulf across the Iranian coastline.

Figure 3: Meteosat-10 HRV with 20% Night Cloud Microphysics, 15 December 04:00-13:00 UTC

The enhanced Metop-A Natural Colour RGB from AVHRR (Figure 4) shows the first instance of the contrails in better spatial resolution.

Contrails over the Persian Gulf
Figure 4: Metop-A Natural Colour RGB from AVHRR, 15 December 06:20 UTC