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Aircraft glaciation trails over southern Lake Michigan

By Scott Bachmeier •

5-minute GOES-19 True Color RGB images, from 2026-2256 UTC on 25 February [click to play MP4 animation]

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed aircraft glaciation trails drifting east-southeastward over southern Lake Michigan on 25 February 2026. As aircraft ascended/descended through a cloud band composed of supercooled droplets, additional cooling from wake turbulence and/or particles from jet engine exhaust acting as ice condensation nuclei caused small supercooled water cloud droplets to transform into larger ice crystals (many of which then fell from the cloud layer as snow).

GOES-19 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images (below) revealed that the cloud band that the aircraft penetrated was composed of supercooled water droplets (shades of violet) — while the ice crystal aircraft glaciation trails exhibited shades of green.

5-minute GOES-19 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images, from 2026-2256 UTC on 25 February [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: Aviation, Geo2Grid, GOES-19, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images