Strange Contrail Shadow

Using OzWeatherman's Atmospheric Phenomenon Thread I was able to identify the photo below as a "contrail shadow". However, this one is unique because the sky is actually duo-toned. As you can see it is darker on the right side of the contrail.

This image was taken by my personal friend with his cell phone last year. We were talking about it again the other day and I asked him to send it to me for all of you to take a look at. Is this just a normal contrail shadow.. (are they even normal?! ive never seen one personally) or is it something else. Either way I found it interesting and wanted to share.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a188fecfa364.jpg[/atsimg]

This image was not manipulated as far as i know, he saw the phenomenon with his own eyes and snapped a pic.

Here I manipulated the contrast, cut out the contrail and nudged the right section to overlap. This way you can clearly see the tonal difference in the sky.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7f8bc0328baa.jpg[/atsimg]

Just curious if anyone has ever seen something similar or has an explanation. Thanks!

Interesting. Your image enhancement really shows the difference.

Be curious to hear the explanation to this one.

The digital camera built into cellphones auto-corrects images so things don't appear too bright, or too dark. This is very useful so one can take pictures at night, or in sunlight, without having to manually adjust aperture, speed, and F-stop. Basically each camera contains a professional photographer inside it in the form of a chip or software.

The chemtrail, in this case, defeated the algorithm and produced the obvious contrast artifact that is seen. Looks to me as though this camera divides the image into successively smaller triangles to do it's correction. The dark line is the result of darkening the overly bright chemtrail line a little bit.


David Grouchy

I have seen this phenomenon before in the skies of Oregon maybe seven or eight years ago...i always thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me....thanks for the photo!

reply to post by davidgrouchy


Please tell me you wrote "chemtrail" instead of "contrail" by accident... please?

reply to post by davidgrouchy


Good response! However I should have specified that the tonal difference was seen with the naked eye.

edit to add: The photographer originally didn't even notice the slight "shadow", and nor did I when I viewed the photo, that is, until I reviewed the atmospheric phenomenon thread I linked in the OP.

When he first explained it to me he talked of a contrail where "the sky was darker on one side".

[edit on 3-3-2010 by samureyed]

nano-aluminum.

its reflecting the suns light, and the wind must be blowing to the left.




this is a total guess.

The contrail has nothing to do with it. Try the overlap trick entirely to the left of the contrail, you'll get the same effect.

The sky is not the same saturation throughout.

Originally posted by samureyed
Is this just a normal contrail shadow.. (are they even normal?! ive never seen one personally) or is it something else.

It is normal and it is common. Living in a city with America's busiest airport I've seen this many times. Sadly, some of my friends who are of the chemtrail-believin' variety see this and read in all sorts of nonsense when they see them.

I will just say this.

It doesn't look like "normal" phenom.
It's odd and unnatural.
And - it isn't common.


[edit on 3-3-2010 by spinkyboo]

reply to post by Phage


Figured it was worth a shot, because you're absolutely right, the sky is not the same saturation throughout. I used the original image this time and overlapped both the left and the right. I cant see any change in value, but you can see where i overlapped using the wires.

Obviously this is just some type of atmospheric illusion or other phenomenon, but in my opinion and from what I can see, the right side of the contrail definitely has a darker shaded value than the left. Perhaps the contrail shadow is faintly skewed or blurred to the right creating this darker shade.

Either way, good observation but I am not convinced it's simply due to a normal gradation in the sky.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/10af804d4bdd.jpg[/atsimg]

That's no Contrail that's a Chemical Trail

reply to post by traditionaldrummer


Just to be clear, I am not speculating any connection to chemtrails. Just trying to figure out why the sky changes value.

If i tie a string across a room and shine a light down upon it, im sure we can clearly see a shadow from the string. However I highly doubt the right side of the room is now darker.

reply to post by DCDAVECLARKE


We have no proof or evidence of this from a simple photo, and i am not interested in discussing chemtrails. Please stay on topic

Originally posted by samureyed
reply to post by DCDAVECLARKE

 

We have no proof or evidence of this from a simple photo, and i am not interested in discussing chemtrails. Please stay on topic

Well thats what your dealing with here, Contrails are very small behind the jet! look it up.

Originally posted by davidgrouchy
The chemtrail, in this case, defeated the algorithm and produced the obvious contrast artifact that is seen.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/af9dd2dcf86c.png[/atsimg]

Here is a cut out the section with the artifact refered too. It looks like a dark line that continues straight down at an angle along the original path of the contrail. The arrow may help, locate it. I appologize if the tone of the sky was the only question.


David Grouchy

[edit on 4-3-2010 by davidgrouchy]

It would not be from the camera,if the OP saw this with their own eyes. I too have seen this effect.