The characteristics of a contrail depend initially on the size, shape and engine position of the aircraft that created it ...

A new study allays fears that rerouting flights to avoid forming climate-warming contrails could result in inadvertently making climate warming worse. A new study allays fears that rerouting flights ...

Contrails are clouds made of ice particles, which can be created when airplanes fly through cold, humid air. Persistent contrails are estimated to have a warming climate impact. Flight tests will ...

In a new study, co-authored by Fangqun Yu of UAlbany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, a team of researchers found that modern “lean-burn” aircraft engines still produce the conditions necessary ...

IATA has called for urgent action to deepen the understanding on the formation and climate impact of aviation contrails. The newly released IATA report Aviation Contrails and their Climate Effect: ...

The white trails left by high-flying airplanes may be a pretty sight in a blue sky, but bomber crews dislike them for good reason: an airplane may look from the ground like an almost invisible speck, ...

Four research figures show how contrails appear in two satellite views (left) and two photographs taken from the MIT Green Building. Aviation’s climate impact is partly due to contrails — condensation ...

Suggested Citation: "1 Overview." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Developing a Research Agenda on Contrails and Their Climate Impacts. Washington, DC: The National ...

German aerospace research center DLR has released the results of the flight tests conducted with Airbus and CFM International in 2023, revealing new mechanisms in contrail formation. Contrails have an ...

Aviation's climate impact is partly due to contrails—condensation that a plane streaks across the sky when it flies through icy and humid layers of the atmosphere. Contrails trap heat that radiates ...