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Jet Contrails Lead to Increased High-Level Cloudiness Over Alaska
Reference
Nakanishi, S., Curtis, J. and Wendler, G.  2001.  The influence of increased jet airline traffic on the amount of high level cloudiness in Alaska.  Theoretical and Applied Climatology 68: 197-205.

What was done
Airline traffic in Alaska has increased over 400% since 1970.  In an effort to determine whether this phenomenon has influenced cloudiness, and ultimately climate, the authors examined trends in cloudiness at first-order weather stations both within and without the major flight corridor of the central, interior region of Alaska for the period 1952-1988.

What was learned
Over the 37-year period of study, high cloud amount increased between 27 and 50% within the flight corridor region, while little to no increase was observed at stations outside the corridor.  Additional analyses led the authors to conclude that jet air traffic was directly responsible for at least half of the cloudiness increase.

What it means
According to the authors, the observed increase in high level clouds along the major flight corridor of interior central Alaska may partly explain the regional warming trend reported there, taking a lot of heat off CO2 and other greenhouse gases that have been claimed to be responsible for the recent historical increase in near-surface air temperature in this part of the world.