Airborne Expedition to Yellowstone 1966

by Dr. Ed Berry

Fifty-two years ago, in January 1966, I and 3 other explorers flew our Beechcraft C-45 through Old Faithful Geyser and other geyser plumes in Yellowstone National Park, USA.

We didn’t have go-pro’s or other digital camera’s in those days. But we did have a time-lapse 16-mm camera in the nose of the Beech.

The movie film lay languished for 52 years until my son, Kim, recently put digitized versions of our time-lapse movies into a 12 minute video.

These flights were paid for by the US Bureau of Reclamation on a contract with the University of Nevada Desert Research Institute (DRI).

After I graduated with my PhD in physics in 1965, DRI make me chief scientist of its airborne research facility. We mounted then state-of-the-art atmospheric sampling instruments on the Beechcraft. We flew into Sierra Nevada winter storms, summer storms, and wave clouds to collect data.

Here is our report for this project: Airborne Expedition to Yellowstone 1966.

Wave clouds

This video shows our photos of wave clouds as we flew at 30,000 feet. The Beechcraft was not pressurized, so we used oxygen masks.

How did we get an old twin-engine Beechcraft C-45 to 30,000 feet, which was way above its rated altitude?

Answer: we flew the Beechcraft like a glider, staying in the updraft of the wave clouds to gain altitude.

When we were ready to come down, we flew out of the wave’s updraft and into its downdraft. That was like being in an elevator in freefall.

Water droplets and ice crystals

We found that water vapor condensed into water droplets and remained water droplets at temperatures much lower than zero degrees Celsius (0C). But at -26C, water droplets spontaneously turned into ice crystals. These droplets were less than 30 microns in diameter, or about the size of particles in cigarette smoke.

Sometimes, you see wave clouds over or downwind of mountains. Wave clouds are very smooth. They have a leading edge where the air rises and water vapor condenses into water droplets, and a trailing edge where the droplets or ice crystals evaporate.

Ice crystals last longer than water droplets, so ice crystals leave a much longer contrail than water droplets. Once water droplets become ice crystals, they will remain ice crystals unless they warm to 0C.

All engines that burn carbon fuels exhaust water vapor and carbon dioxide. The water vapor can condense into water droplets and form a contrail. If the air temperature is less than -26 C, the water droplets change to small ice crystals.

With a little practice, you can tell the difference between contrails or clouds composed of water droplets from those composed of ice crystals. Water droplet clouds have bright, shiny edges. Ice crystal clouds have hazy edges.

Bad science

Some people claim contrails are “chemtrails” that contain harmful chemicals. They do not understand contrails. The photos they claim are chemtrails, are contrails. If they were professionals, they would bolt an air sampler onto a business jet and capture proof of their chemtrail claims. But they have not done this.

Good science

Recall, in science, we cannot prove a hypothesis is true, but we can prove a hypothesis is false. I mean slam dunk, checkmate prove. No wishy washy.

The climate alarmists first hypothesis is that human carbon dioxide emissions are the primary cause of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

My major accomplishment of 2017, is my professional paper that proves this fundamental alarmist hypothesis is wrong. I use the Equivalence Principle of physics to make a relatively simple checkmate proof.

The climate alarmists claims are dead even though, in their enthusiasm, they may not realize this fact for years.

My climate paper is in some ways similar to the first paper I published while still a graduate student. I used simple theory to make my proof. I showed how a claim by several physicists, in text books and in Scientific American, was wrong. They did not understand my proof until several years later.

But you can. Here it is:

Do this experiment.

Attach a weight to the end of a string. Whirl it around, then let the string wind up around your finger as you hold your finger still.

Here’s your question: Does the weight speed up as the string winds up?

This is really very simple physics, and everyone should understand my explanation.

To read the correct answer to this question, read my paper “Nonconservation of angular momentum of a weight on a string.” This is simple physics that fooled the pros.

Merry Christmas.