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 […]
Tag Archives: Contrails
Modern aircraft emit less carbon than older aircraft, but their contrails may do more environmental harm
Phys.org August 7, 2024 Contrails contribute over half of the positive radiative forcing from aviation, but the size of this warming effect is highly uncertain. In-situ observations have demonstrated an impact of aircraft and fuel type on contrail properties close to the aircraft, but there are few observational constraints at these longer timescales, despite these having a strong impact in high-resolution and global models. An international team of researchers (UK, Germany, USA – NASA Langley Research Center (VA)) found a relationship between aircraft type and contrail formation after investigating over 64 000 cases, with more efficient aircraft forming longer-lived satellite-detectable […]