[tw]

This picture (like the one from the DMSP satellite of US lights at night) are all over offices in Defense plants. This effect has been seen before, but occurs rarely. It is as difficult to photograph as Tornados since it appears to involve limited temperatures, humidity, and the acceleration of the plane.

Watch the wings on your commerical airliner. Sometimes the air rolling off the end of the wing creates the same 'vapor' leaving a trail in the sky.

As for sonic booms: we were laying on the beach when the ground felt to vibrate. Earthquake? We thought so. It turns out the Concorde was remaining supersonic too long causing a vibration that many attributed to an earthquake. The boom would only read shore during certain weather conditions. The solution was to drop out of super sonce flight farther from the US coast.