The aviation industry faces significant challenges due to climate change, prompting continuous efforts to find innovations and improve existing technologies. However, the complexity of various impacts on accelerating climate change leads to more demanding solutions for their mitigation.
While solutions for halting one issue are being found, there is a concern that these measures could lead to other negative impacts.
How do modern aircraft flights affect the climate? Modern airplanes are designed to fly at higher altitudes compared to older commercial aircraft. The reason for increasing flight altitudes is that it reduces fuel consumption, as the air at such altitudes is thinner and provides less aerodynamic resistance. This simultaneously reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
However, while higher altitudes reduce fuel consumption and mentioned emissions, they exacerbate another problem related to climate change – contrails.
Contrails, or condensation trails, are visible trails of condensed water vapor created during an aircraft’s flight from its exhaust gases. Specifically, these trails form when warm and moist gases from an aircraft’s exhaust pipes come into contact with colder air. The vapor then condenses and forms droplets or ice crystals, which become visible in the sky as aircraft trails. As conditions at higher altitudes are different, with significantly lower temperatures and higher humidity in the atmosphere, these trails last longer before dissipating. Consequently, the longer they persist, the more they contribute to atmospheric warming, as they trap heat like clouds.
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These conclusions are based on a study conducted by scientists from Imperial College London, published in Environmental Research Letters. The study analyzed over 64,000 cases of contrails, using satellite data and flight information to investigate how different types of aircraft affect the formation and duration of these trails.
Although the study suggested that reducing solid particle emissions in exhaust gases could affect the duration of contrails, this remains a hypothesis. The reason is the numerous factors that influence the duration and intensity of these trails, making the study a mere introduction to further research needed to find more effective solutions to this problem.
Katarina Vuinac
