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Contemporary allegation
Chemtrails / covert geoengineeringAtlas
Science & Technology · Weather & climate modification
Competing accounts of whether persistent aircraft trails are evidence of a covert chemical spraying program, versus ordinary contrails plus limited acknowledged atmospheric research.
Open the caseSecret large-scale atmospheric spraying program2
- Documented · An international survey reported that nearly 17 percent of respondents said they believed a secret large-scale atmospheric spraying program, often called chemtrails or covert geoengineering, to be true or partly true.
- Documented · Well-understood physical and chemical processes are cited by atmospheric science experts as sufficient to explain phenomena commonly presented as evidence of a secret large-scale atmospheric spraying program.
Central Intelligence Agency1
- Contested · Public commentary in the chemtrail narrative has claimed that CIA-linked funding supported a geoengineering study involving the National Academy of Sciences together with NOAA and NASA.
Environmental Research Letters1
- Documented · A 2016 Environmental Research Letters survey reported near-unanimous expert rejection of a secret large-scale atmospheric spraying program as the explanation for alleged chemtrails.
NASA1
- Documented · U.S. agencies including EPA, NASA, NOAA, and FAA have published public materials describing aircraft contrails.
NOAA1
- Official · NOAA has stated publicly that it is not currently researching or conducting weather modification experiments and has no plans to do so, while continuing stratosphere and marine boundary-layer observations that can inform geoengineering risk discussions.
Solar geoengineering1
- Documented · Solar geoengineering and related aerosol concepts appear in open scientific and policy literature as research topics.
Solar radiation management1
- Documented · Open geoengineering literature discusses solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal approaches, including cloud-seeding and related chemical concepts, as research themes rather than as confirmed operational spray programs.
U.S. Department of Energy1
- Contested · Freedom of Information Act requesters have sought U.S. Department of Energy records on the premise that agency geoengineering-related work poses imminent public health and environmental risks from toxic particulate matter.
Other4
- Documented · Contrails form when aircraft exhaust mixes with cold, humid upper air and can persist and spread under suitable conditions.
- Documented · Expert surveys addressing chemtrail claims have included atmospheric chemists with expertise in condensation trails and related atmospheric processes.
- Documented · University and research-institution communications have publicly characterized the chemtrails secret-spraying claim as inconsistent with mainstream atmospheric science explanations of contrails.
- Contested · Chemtrail-oriented books and websites link persistent aircraft trail grids to alleged health, environmental, and electromagnetic-control harms and treat acknowledged geoengineering research as partial confirmation.