Can We Eliminate Contrails and Reduce Global Warming?

✈️Contrails, which look like cirrus clouds, can be avoided by changing flight altitudes and avoiding super humid regions in the sky.

🌎Contrails contribute to about 35% of the environmental impact of flying and trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

🛰️Google's Climate and Energy team is using AI and machine learning to develop a contrail avoidance system that analyzes satellite data.

🌡️The heat trapped by nighttime contrails can be magnitudes greater than daytime contrails.

⭐Contrail avoidance can be implemented now, providing a more immediate solution to reduce the environmental impact of flying.

What are contrails?

—Contrails are artificial cirrus clouds formed by planes flying through ice supersaturated regions in the upper atmosphere.

How do contrails contribute to global warming?

—Contrails trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere and are responsible for about 35% of the environmental impact of flying.

Can contrails be avoided?

—Contrails can be reduced by changing flight altitudes and avoiding super humid regions in the sky.

What is Google's role in contrail research?

—Google's Climate and Energy team is using AI and machine learning to develop a contrail avoidance system that analyzes satellite data.

Are there any challenges in implementing contrail avoidance at scale?

—Challenges include working with air traffic control and targeting the most important contrails that contribute to heat trapping.

00:14Contrails, artificial cirrus clouds formed by planes flying through ice supersaturated regions, contribute to about 35% of the environmental impact of flying.

00:50Contrails can be avoided by changing flight altitudes and avoiding super humid regions in the sky.

01:31Google's Climate and Energy team is using AI and machine learning to develop a contrail avoidance system that analyzes satellite data.

03:22Detecting contrails is challenging as they look a lot like cirrus clouds, but machine learning algorithms can be trained to identify them.

04:31Trials with American Airlines have shown that contrail avoidance is possible by changing flight altitudes based on real-time contrail forecasts.