RTV Drenthe’s weather woman Grieta Spannenburg explains that these are so-called contrails, or aircraft stripes. We mainly see these when there are no clouds. In this case they were caused by a Defense aircraft. “It was an airbus tanker from the air force,” says Grieta. “If they have to wait for some reason, they make waiting loops, which is how the circles are created in the air.”
We can find more information at the meteorological institute KNMI. It turns out that the white streaks are artificial clouds, created by the emission of water vapor by aircraft. The water vapor from the aircraft engines freezes at an altitude of ten kilometers, where it freezes more than forty degrees. The ice crystals formed then form the aircraft stripes visible to us.
The aircraft stripes are therefore also called contrails. This is a combination of the English words condensation and trails. The KNMI also reports on the site that the stripes can also change color. That has everything to do with the position of the sun. When the sun is low, just before sunset, the stripes can turn a bright yellow or orange color.
The drier the air is, the faster the line disappears. Meteorologists can therefore partly see what kind of weather the weather will be due to the speed at which the aircraft stripes dissolve. If the stripes dissolve quickly, the air is dry and there is little chance that the weather will change. But if the stripes remain for a long time, the weather will probably change within a few days.
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