Phys.org  November 1, 2024 Aircraft contrails are important for aviation’s non-CO2 climate impact. An international team of researchers ( USA – Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, University at Albany, NASA Langley Research Center, Virginia, Germany) showed that the range of conditions for volatile plume particles to contribute significantly to the contrail ice number budget was likely determined by the sizes of primary soot particles rather than the effective sizes of soot aggregates. The smaller soot primary sizes compared to aggregate sizes delay the onset of contrail ice formation, increased the maximum plume supersaturation reached in the contrail plume, and thus increased […]