jetcloud

"The water vapor from Columbia's exhaust plume approached the South Pole within three days,: according to Michael Stevens, a scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, and lead author of an article outlining the phenomenon this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Columbia released nearly 400 tons of water, the result of burning its liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel, in a plume nearly 2 miles around and 650 miles long.
The high concentration of water vapor from the shuttle and the lower temperatures over Antarctica resulted in significantly more mesospheric clouds, at about 52 miles up, the highest clouds formed in the atmosphere."