‘Planes influence weather during takeoff, landing’
Believe it or not, aeroplanes influence local weather when they takeoff and land.
A new study, published in the Science journal, has found that aircraft increase the chances of snow and rain during takeoff and landing, a finding based on satellite images of clouds around airports. The phenomenon occurs when aircraft smash through clouds containing “super-cooled” water — or water that exists as droplets of liquid at temperatures of minus 10ºC or below, say the researchers.
As an aeroplane passes quickly through a cloud, the air behind the wings and propellers expands and cools rapidly. These sudden drops in temperature can be enough to freeze droplets of super-cooled water, turning them into a stream of ice crystals. Over time, ice crystals grow and affect neighbouring drops of water, creating a hole in the cloud that expands for several hours and increasing the chances of snow or rain on the ground underneath. Dr Andrew Heymsfield of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, said aircraft increased the chances of snow when they punched holes in clouds after taking off and when they created “canals” in clouds when descending.
“Whether an airplane creates a hole or a canal in the clouds depends on its trajectory. When they climb through a super-cooled cloud layer, they can just produce a hole. But when they fly level through the cloud layer, they can produce long canals,” he was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying.
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