It is not the generation nor persistence of the trails that interests me, it is that other aircraft, some leaving trails and others not, INVESTIGATE how other previously left trails have deformed.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2010 writers and authors earned a median salary of $55,420 per year, or $26.64 per hour. These numbers are for freelance writers and authors of books, though, and novelist income is harder to pin down because usually, income depends on book sales and contracts.
Most staff writers work on 20-week contracts, at a rate of about $3,800 a week, though more senior writers earn about $6,000 a week. But the real money is in writing an entire episode on one's own. That pays $24,788 a script, and considerably more if you create your own series (see Showrunner).