How AI is helping airlines mitigate the climate impact of contrails
Contrails form when airplanes fly through layers of humidity and they can persist as cirrus clouds for minutes or hours depending on the atmospheric conditions. While these extra clouds can reflect sunlight back into space during the day, they also trap large amounts of heat that would otherwise leave the Earth’s atmosphere. This creates a net warming effect. Avoiding flying through areas that create contrails can reduce warming. The challenge is knowing which flight routes will create contrails.
Reducing the warming impact of contrails
A group of pilots at American flew 70 test flights over six months while using Google’s AI-based predictions, cross-referenced with Breakthrough Energy’s open-source contrail models, to avoid altitudes that are likely to create contrails. After these test flights, we analyzed satellite imagery and found that the pilots were able to reduce contrails by 54%. This is the first proof point that commercial flights can verifiably avoid contrails and thereby reduce their climate impact.