Airlines looking for ways to avoid creating contrails, major contributors to climate change
The American Airlines jet roared out of the Belize airport and climbed through the tropical skies on its way to Dallas. The Boeing 737 levelled out at 32,000 feet – below the typical altitude – before ascending to a higher-than-usual 38,000 feet. It was an unusual route, but this was not a typical flight. The deviations allowed the aircraft to avoid leaving cloud-like vapour streams known as contrails, a small step in reducing the major impact aviation has on climate change. The flight was one of 70 flown by the airline earlier this year on which the pilots were armed with contrail forecasts. That data, compiled by researchers at Google, pinpointed the location of the moist, cool atmospheric conditions in which ice and water vapour cling to an aircraft’s sooty emissions and form the clouds that can trail an aircraft. Contrails are major contributors to climate change, forming long-lasting clouds that spread and trap the Earth’s heat. Contrails boost aviation’s share of global CO2 emissions to 3.5% from 2.5%, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The effect is most pronounced at night, when they do not reflect sunlight and only trap heat. American Airlines, Delta Airlines and others have teamed up with researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Google to reduce aviation’s climate impact by conducting studies and flying at altitudes that do not create contrails, adopting different flight plans in pilot projects. Experts say contrail reduction is the only tool the aviation industry has today to make meaningful cuts in its carbon emissions. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-01-11/general/airlines-looking-for-ways-to-avoid-creating-contrails-major-contributors-to-climate-change
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Airlines looking for ways to avoid creating contrails, major contributors to climate change
The American Airlines jet roared out of the Belize airport and climbed through the tropical skies on its way to Dallas. The Boeing 737 levelled out at 32,000 feet – below the typical altitude – before ascending to a higher-than-usual 38,000 feet. It was an unusual route, but this was not a typical flight. The deviations allowed the aircraft to avoid leaving cloud-like vapour streams known as contrails, a small step in reducing the major impact aviation has on climate change. The flight was one of 70 flown by the airline earlier this year on which the pilots were armed with contrail forecasts. That data, compiled by researchers at Google, pinpointed the location of the moist, cool atmospheric conditions in which ice and water vapour cling to an aircraft’s sooty emissions and form the clouds that can trail an aircraft. Contrails are major contributors to climate change, forming long-lasting clouds that spread and trap the Earth’s heat. Contrails boost aviation’s share of global CO2 emissions to 3.5% from 2.5%, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The effect is most pronounced at night, when they do not reflect sunlight and only trap heat. American Airlines, Delta Airlines and others have teamed up with researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Google to reduce aviation’s climate impact by conducting studies and flying at altitudes that do not create contrails, adopting different flight plans in pilot projects. Experts say contrail reduction is the only tool the aviation industry has today to make meaningful cuts in its carbon emissions. Story has more.<br/>
