The aviation industry is making significant strides toward sustainability, with innovations ranging from new materials that reduce aircraft weight to exploring alternative fuels.
However, one surprising environmental issue remains contrails. These long, thin clouds that form behind jet aircraft can significantly affect the climate by trapping heat that would otherwise escape into space.
Contrails form when hot exhaust gases from aircraft engines mix with cold air, leading to the condensation of water vapor.
Under specific atmospheric conditions, these condensed water vapor trails can expand, forming contrail cirrus clouds.
These clouds are known to trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to warming, and are estimated to be responsible for more than half of aviation’s total climate impact.
In a recent study, Fangqun Yu, a senior researcher at the University at Albany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, and his team examined how soot and volatile particles influence contrail formation.
The research suggests that soot particles, produced during fuel combustion, have a significant impact on contrail ice particle formation.
As the aviation industry moves toward cleaner fuels and more efficient engines, reducing soot emissions, volatile particles from engine exhaust become more crucial to understand.
Previous studies suggested that volatile particles only become significant when soot emissions are low, but Yu’s team discovered that volatile particles may affect contrail formation at medium levels of soot emissions.
This insight could have far-reaching implications, as understanding this process is essential for developing strategies to mitigate contrail-related climate impacts.
Yu’s work, which spans over two decades, has focused on particle microphysics and their effects on the environment.
His collaboration with GE Research and NASA aims to assess how clean aviation fuels and new engine technologies can reduce contrail formation and improve the sustainability of air travel.
This research could play a critical role in shaping future aviation policies, ensuring that environmental considerations are integrated into the development of sustainable flight technologies.