12 September 2014
Anniversary: One of 9-11's Most Stunning Moments
One of the most stunning achievements of 9-11 was how fast the air traffic control system put everyone on the ground. The "before" picture is around 0930 or so, with about 10,000 planes in the air nationwide. 60 minutes later, there were about 150 (the "after" picture), and most of them were circling runways waiting for other planes to clear so they could land.
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One of my more vivid memories of the days after 9/11 was the night sky. At the time I lived under an approach route for Pearson Airport in Toronto and it was weird to see only stars at night. I actually called my wife out on night 2 and said look up, we may never see the night sky like this again. When I saw my first civil airliner in the air again, it was a tangible relief that things were getting back to normal.
It was also a huge experiment for climate sciences, for there were almost no contrails in the air for days over North America. This hadn't been true in decades, and no scientist could have dreamed of having such an experiment before 9/11.
The role of contrails in greenhouse effect had been less well-understood previously.
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