Altostratus and contrail

Sky and surface view from early in the flight, looking east from 28,000',  The low sun angle makes the contours of the ice surface look unusually pronounced.  The remnants of an altostratus layer beneath us are visible, mostly at left.  Another aircraft's contrail is prominent, as is its shadow on the surface.  The contrail is probably from a transatlantic airliner a few thousand feet above us.  Since we are operating at high altitude and sharing airspace with commercial traffic, our flight crew must coordinate everything we do with controllers on the ground, via flight planning and radio communications.  This adds significant complexity to our operations and an increased workload to our pilots.