Pictured above is a high-altitude jet airliner flying over Aurora and King, probably in the neighbourhood of 50,000 feet, and likely on a cross-country flight. Grid-patterned contrails in south-central Canada are not left by U.S.A.F. B-52s. They are condensation trails from normal daily jet aircraft operations, with grid patterns resulting from established air traffic routes in the National Airspace System (NAS). U.S.A.F. B-52s do fly similar routes on occasion during special training and operational exercises.
Contrails form when water vapor from jet engine exhaust freezes into ice crystals in cold, humid high-altitude air. They can appear as grids due to air traffic corridors, similar to highways in the sky, and their persistence is a result of atmospheric humidity.
I took the photo above with my Nikon camera, using a Nikkor 55-300 mm telephoto lens and enlarged it considerably on my desk-top computer.
Please comment if you wish.
Barry Wallace
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