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#1
October 13th 04, 09:24 PM
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contrails
This might be slightly off topic, but the APOD picture today made me
think of it. Has anyone noticed contrails toward the horizon that appear to go almost vertically downward, as if we're seeing around the curvature of the earth's atmosphere being 40,000 feet below the path of the airplane? Is that what's happening? What I'm picturing is concentric spheres with their surfaces 40,000 feet apart (the larger one 80,000 feet larger in diameter than the sphere inside it) and we're on the surface of the smaller one looking up and tracing a line drawn on the surface of the larger one. Now for the really off topic question...When I flew from Shannon, Ireland to New York City, we flew over what looked like a glacier. Does the curved flight path from Ireland take you over Greenland or Iceland? Clear Skies, Paul Murphy 
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#2
October 13th 04, 09:33 PM
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Paul Murphy wrote:
This might be slightly off topic, but the APOD picture today made me think of it. Has anyone noticed contrails toward the horizon that appear to go almost vertically downward, as if we're seeing around the curvature of the earth's atmosphere being 40,000 feet below the path of the airplane? Is that what's happening? What I'm picturing is concentric spheres with their surfaces 40,000 feet apart (the larger one 80,000 feet larger in diameter than the sphere inside it) and we're on the surface of the smaller one looking up and tracing a line drawn on the surface of the larger one. Now for the really off topic question...When I flew from Shannon, Ireland to New York City, we flew over what looked like a glacier. Does the curved flight path from Ireland take you over Greenland or Iceland? Clear Skies, Paul Murphy Greenland for sure. Iceland maybe. It's pretty impressive, isn't it? -- Tom McDonald http://webpages.charter.net/tsmac/tmcdonald2672/
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#3
October 14th 04, 12:53 AM
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While flying from Frankfurt, Germany to NYC, we were told by the Pilot
that we could see Greenland out the right window. Paul Murphy wrote: This might be slightly off topic, but the APOD picture today made me think of it. Has anyone noticed contrails toward the horizon that appear to go almost vertically downward, as if we're seeing around the curvature of the earth's atmosphere being 40,000 feet below the path of the airplane? Is that what's happening? What I'm picturing is concentric spheres with their surfaces 40,000 feet apart (the larger one 80,000 feet larger in diameter than the sphere inside it) and we're on the surface of the smaller one looking up and tracing a line drawn on the surface of the larger one. Now for the really off topic question...When I flew from Shannon, Ireland to New York City, we flew over what looked like a glacier. Does the curved flight path from Ireland take you over Greenland or Iceland? Clear Skies, Paul Murphy -- Tom Rankin - Programmer by day, amateur astronomer by night! Mid-Hudson Astronomy Association - http://mhaa.whodeanie.com Views and Brews - http://viewsandbrews.com When replying, remove the capital letters from my email address.
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#5
October 14th 04, 04:19 PM
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Chris L Peterson wrote in message . ..
On 13 Oct 2004 13:24:36 -0700, (Paul Murphy) wrote: Now for the really off topic question...When I flew from Shannon, Ireland to New York City, we flew over what looked like a glacier. Does the curved flight path from Ireland take you over Greenland or Iceland? The _straight_ flight path from Ireland to NYC takes you a few hundred miles south of both Iceland and Greenland. But they might have flown a little farther north to avoid weather. The straight flight from LA to Ireland is well over Greenland. The NAT track system, based on the great circle route and adjusted for the jetstream and other variables, often routes aircraft going from London to NYC over Greenland and just south of Iceland, sometimes even over Iceland itself.
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#6
October 14th 04, 04:39 PM
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"Paul Murphy" wrote in message
om... This might be slightly off topic, but the APOD picture today made me APOD? Guess it means Astronomy Picture of the Day, but where please?
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#7
October 14th 04, 04:45 PM
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"Henry" wrote in message ... "Paul Murphy" wrote in message om... This might be slightly off topic, but the APOD picture today made me APOD? Guess it means Astronomy Picture of the Day, but where please? Google is your friend But so are people here http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html The contrails were in yesterdays APOD, so go to http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041013.html
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#8
October 14th 04, 08:32 PM
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Chris L Peterson wrote... (Paul Murphy) wrote: Now for the really off topic question...When I flew from Shannon, Ireland to New York City, we flew over what looked like a glacier. Does the curved flight path from Ireland take you over Greenland or Iceland? The _straight_ flight path from Ireland to NYC takes you a few hundred miles south of both Iceland and Greenland. But they might have flown a little farther north to avoid weather. The straight flight from LA to Ireland is well over Greenland. No true. The _straight_ flight from LA to Ireland is well *under* Greenland. Perhaps you meant great circle instead of straight?  -- Guy Macon http://www.guymacon.com
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#9
October 14th 04, 09:19 PM
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Guy Macon wrote:
Chris L Peterson wrote... (Paul Murphy) wrote: Now for the really off topic question...When I flew from Shannon, Ireland to New York City, we flew over what looked like a glacier. Does the curved flight path from Ireland take you over Greenland or Iceland? The _straight_ flight path from Ireland to NYC takes you a few hundred miles south of both Iceland and Greenland. But they might have flown a little farther north to avoid weather. The straight flight from LA to Ireland is well over Greenland. No true. The _straight_ flight from LA to Ireland is well *under* Greenland. Perhaps you meant great circle instead of straight? How do you get "straighter" moving over a sphere than a great circle? Inquiring minds and all that. Shawn
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#10
October 14th 04, 09:21 PM
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"Guy Macon" http://www.guymacon.com wrote in message ... Chris L Peterson wrote... (Paul Murphy) wrote: Now for the really off topic question...When I flew from Shannon, Ireland to New York City, we flew over what looked like a glacier. Does the curved flight path from Ireland take you over Greenland or Iceland? The _straight_ flight path from Ireland to NYC takes you a few hundred miles south of both Iceland and Greenland. But they might have flown a little farther north to avoid weather. The straight flight from LA to Ireland is well over Greenland. No true. The _straight_ flight from LA to Ireland is well *under* Greenland. Perhaps you meant great circle instead of straight? On the surface of a sphere the definition of 'straight line' is 'great circle'.
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