Modern Aircraft Contrails may be causing more environmental harm

A new study Published in Environmental Research Letters,  has found that modern commercial aircrafts, flying at high altitudes create more longer-lived planet-warming contrails than older aircraft.

Effects of Contrails

The study led by scientists at Imperial College London, highlights the immense challenges the aviation industry faces to reduce its impact on the climate. The results highlight that although modern planes emit less carbon than older aircrafts, they may be contributing more to climate change through contrails. It also shows that private jets are potentially leading to outsized impacts on climate warming as they produce more contrails than previously thought.

Contrails which are thin streaks of cloud created by aircraft exhaust fumes contribute to global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere. Scientists believe that although the exact warming effect of contrails are uncertain, it is greater than warming caused by carbon emissions from jet fuel.

The study used machine learning to analyse satellite data on more than 64,000 contrails from a range of aircraft flying over the North Atlantic Ocean.

The lead author of the study and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Grantham Institute, Dr. Edward Gryspeerdt, said, “It’s common knowledge that flying is not good for the climate. However, most people do not appreciate that contrails and jet fuel carbon emissions cause a double-whammy warming of the climate.” He added that “This doesn’t mean that more efficient aircraft are a bad thing—however, our finding reflects the challenges the aviation industry faces when reducing its climate impact.”

Reducing the Lifetime of Contrails

The study further confirmed a simple step that can be taken to lessen the lifespan of contrails, is by reducing the amount of soot emitted from aircraft engines, produced when fuel burns inefficiently. While other studies using models have predicted this phenomenon, this study is the first to confirm it using real-world observations.

Co-author Dr. Marc Stettler, said, “From other studies, we know that the number of soot particles in aircraft exhaust plays a key role in the properties of newly formed contrails. Our study provides the first evidence that emitting fewer soot particles results in contrails that fall out of the sky faster compared to contrails formed on more numerous soot particles from older, dirtier engines.”

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