Environmental News Network - Small Altitude Changes Could Cut Contrail Impact of Flights by up to 59 per Cent

Details: By Imperial College London; 12.Feb

Aircraft contrails – the white streaks aircraft leave in the sky – could be as bad for the climate as their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Mohammad Munshed

Aircraft contrails – the white streaks aircraft leave in the sky – could be as bad for the climate as their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Now, Imperial College London-led research has found that flight altitude changes of just 2,000 feet could lessen their effect.

This, the researchers say, combined with using cleaner aircraft engines, could reduce contrail-caused harm to the climate by up to 90 per cent.

Lead author Dr Marc Stettler, of Imperial’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said: “According to our study, changing the altitude of a small number of flights could significantly reduce the climate effects of aviation contrails. This new method could very quickly reduce the overall climate impact of the aviation industry.”

The research is published in Environmental Science & Technology.

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Small Altitude Changes Could Cut Contrail Impact of Flights by up to 59 per Cent