What are contrails? And when do they appear?

Contrails, short for condensation trails, are those lines that you often see behind an aircraft that is zooming off high in the sky. They are trails of condensed water vapour formed when the hot exhaust gases let out by the aircraft cool in the surroundings to form tiny microscopic water droplets. If the air is cool enough this trail also turns into ice crystals. These contrails, depending on atmospheric conditions, can be spotted for only a few seconds or minutes, or sometimes for many hours. The prolonged contrails can affect the climate as well.

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