Contrail and Circumzenithal Arc
June 06, 2004
Provided by: Jean-Marie Maillard
Summary authors & editors: Jean-Marie Maillard; Jim Foster
The photo above was taken in late April above Waremme, Belgium. I was looking at an interesting parhelia or sundog and a few minutes later noticed a jet aircraft emerge from behind a cirrus cloud deck. The jet's contrail appeared to bisect this fragile circumzenithal arc. In order to observe these graceful arcs, the Sun must be lower than about 32 degrees above the horizon.
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