An image shows the difference between contrails, which are short and wispy and “chemtrails” which are longer and more defined.
There is no evidence the longer white line of cloud is a “chemtrail”. Contrails—the white lines often seen trailing behind aircraft—can differ in appearance due to a number of factors, including altitude and humidity.
A post on Facebook, shared more than 600 times, claims to show the difference between contrails—the white lines of water vapour sometimes seen trailing aircraft—and “chemtrails”.
Below a caption which says “chemtrail spotting 101”, the post claims to show two contrails, both of which are relatively short and wispy, alongside a “chemtrail” which is much longer and more defined.
At Full Fact we’ve written about the “chemtrail” conspiracy theory, which claims that the white lines seen behind planes are actually harmful chemicals being deliberately sprayed into the atmosphere, multiple times before.
It is commonly claimed that the chemicals in “chemtrails” are either designed to poison or harm the population in some way, or manipulate the weather to simulate the effects of climate change, for example.
While these claims are extremely popular online, there’s no evidence to support them.
The white lines seen behind planes are actually contrails—consisting of water vapour that freezes in the cold temperatures at high altitude forming long thin lines of cloud.
Depending on the humidity of the air, the tiny ice crystals can either change directly from a solid to a gas (becoming invisible after a few minutes) or remain in the air as water or ice, which means they stay visible for several hours.
As we have written before about a very similar post, the appearance of contrails can be affected by a number of different factors—not because some are actually “chemtrails”.
The magazine Scientific American has previously reported on this, saying: “Depending on a plane's altitude, and the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere, contrails may vary in their thickness, extent and duration.”
Therefore, while we haven’t traced the origins of this particular image, it is likely that the different contrails have been affected by external factors such as flying at different altitudes. Their visible differences don’t mean they’re made of different materials.
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Image courtesy of KKPCW |
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because contrails can appear differently depending on external conditions, and there’s no evidence the photo shows a “chemtrail”.
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