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Low level smog, yes it was greater in NJ back then.

I’m talking about 40 miles+ outside of NYC. North Jersey is about 80 miles across from GWB to Delaware Water Gap.

So once, for example, you got to Sussex county, you could see the smog sitting over the city if you could stand on a mountain tall enough to see it (a few places).

But if you were in Sussex county and looked straight up on a clear day, you did not see anything much at 30,000 feet, except the occasional contrail from planes, which, on clear days, were not that pronounced and would dissipate rather quickly.

I went numerous times to the Sussex Air Show and can remember clear August days with clear blue sky and no large amounts of vapor / dissipated contrails at high altitudes (30k+). Of course that would be a day for both looking up and looking at airplanes, so one would definitely have taken note of 30k+ alt. commercial jets that left so many contrails that they formed a cloud cover.

Given how much water vapor comes out of jets, both then and now, the only thing I can think of is that perhaps there is typically more moisture at altitude nowadays so perhaps we get more contrails and larger contrails generally.

I just don’t have enough info to determine anything to my satisfaction one way or the other. Hey, if there’s no diabolical plan, great. Also great if there’s nothing going on that’s simply dumb, but not a concerted effort.

I’m always hesitent to rule out stupid mistakes (it’s the only way I can write a good computer program, keep eliminating my own stupid mistakes until there are none left).