We all see trails growing in clear blue skies, and we know the importance of the saturation point.
We know highly supersaturated, 125% – 140%, allows for clouds to form, and subsaturation results in clear blue skies.
We have learned that jet engines are flying water-making machines.
We also know that the word “chemtrails” has been socially stigmatised with conspiracies that make it an impossible subject to investigate and have meaningful conversations about.
Now we must learn about the fuel.
The fuel make-up has been studied in great depth by science. The refinary contaminants and additives have all been logged and categorised in every way possible; little is left to the imagination regarding jet fuel make-up.
An example being the 2000 report by Shumway, which lists the trace elements in jet fuel. Four samples of jet aviation fuel were collected and analysed for a broad range of elements
It was noted that there were substantial differences in the levels of trace elements depending on the origin of the fuel.
Even though the numbers are not always consistent, we know these elements are in the fuel at varying levels.
The existence of metallic elements in jet fuel cannot be denied.
The organometallic elements in the fuel are not only refinery contaminants. Some form after adding a Metal Deactivator (MDA) which captures copper and iron to binds them as organometallic compounds within the fuel.
Silicon is the most abundant metallic element in Jet A1 fuel and it makes very small nuclei when burnt through the engine. It is added to the fuel as organosilicon compounds in anti-foaming agents, lubbricity improvers, and hydrolic stabilisers.
Even though the levels of trace elements vary, jet fuel can be expected to have a vast array in its make-up, as can be seen from the above chart.
The “cut” of the crude oil during the refining process determines the levels of trace elements in the final product.
Jet A, JP-5, and JP-8 will all have different levels of trace metals even when they all come from the same crude oil because of the refinery differences. The cut determines the quality and type of oil product being made.
A heavier cut will produce more Aluminium, Calcium, and Magnesium in the finished product. The cut of the crude oil dictates which metals remain.
We have chemical analysis of the fuel telling us the metallic elements are in the fuel.
Now we have Abegglen (2016) telling us the metallic elements come through the engine and are measurable in the exhaust.
It is impossible for anyone to deny the existence of metallic elements in the exhaust of jetliners, and it is understandable why people call them chemtrails.
The difference between car exhaust in the 1970s and chemtrails, is that car exhaust damaged health, whereas chemtrails change the weather and damage health.
Some people will try to say that these chemicals make no difference because they are only trace amounts, but that is because they do not understand how efficiently they make small ice nuclei, which encourage hygroscopic properties, and they do not understand how many atoms are represented by those “trace” amounts.
Titanium is only measured at 100 ppb, but that means there are 1,300,000,000,000,000 atoms of titanium in each gram of fuel.
The engine burns 800 grams per second; therefore, there are 1,040,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of titanium coming out of the engine every second.
Trace amounts do not mean insignificant numbers.
Including all the organometallic elements, the engine produces 100,000,000 metallic hygroscopic ice nuclei per cubic centimetre.
Even over a few meters, there are trillions of scattering centers per cubic centimeter contributing to the integrated brightness
You can see the metallic ice nuclei directly behind the engine because they are the perfect size to scatter light.
In Jet A1 fuel, the elements, Cr, Ti, and Si, form the first tiny spheres of about 10 nm diameter, and they are built upon by Ca, Mg,Na,Mn, and Zr. When they are small they produce a bluish scattering of light called Rayleigh scattering.
As the particles get above 100 nm they produce Mie scattering which we see as a whitish-grey colour. We see the light as white, even though it has a tint of blue.
You are not seeing smoke, or water droplets, or ice.
You are seeing the light scattering off the metallic based spheres after the organometallic compounds in the fuel are burnt.
This image is from a 2025 study that used high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and discovered the “onion-like” layers of the exhaust particles emitted by jet engines.
They confirmed the building of the ice nuclei occurs in layers formed by the organometallic compounds burnt by the engines acting as a base.