This year our movement to eliminate contrails made historic progress in developing contrail avoidance technology, raising public awareness of global warming contrails, and conducting test flights. End The Lines is proud to report that airlines, governments, private companies, and international scientists are finally awakening to the dangers of aviation’s non-CO2 contributions.
Furthermore, thanks to our supporters, ETL will be at the tip of the spear of the global movement to make eliminating contrails a reality in 2024 and beyond. Let’s have a look back at some of this year’s milestones:
Contrail Coding Competition
In May, Google Research hosted a coding competition to identify contrails. Competitors used geostationary satellite images from the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), and the competition helped researchers improve the accuracy of contrail models.
Project Contrails
In August, Google Research, Breakthrough Energy, and American Airlines announced the findings of “Project Contrails”, the first-of-its-kind test flights using AI-based predictions to avoid contrail creating routes.
U.S. Department of Energy Funds Contrail Avoidance Technology
Also in August, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $10 million in funding to develop technologies to mitigate aviation emissions. The funding will be managed by Dr. Peter de Bock as part of ARPA-E’s “Predictive Real-time Emissions Technologies Reducing Aircraft Induced Lines in the Sky” (PRE-TRAILS).
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Test Flights
In October, NASA, Boeing, and United Airlines completed a series of high-altitude flights to research how different kinds of aviation fuels impact contrail formation and characteristics. The test featured Boeing’s brand-new 737-10 equipped with both 100% SAF, supplied by World Energy, and conventional jet fuel in separate tanks.
NASA’s DC-8 Airborne Science Lab flew behind the commercial jet as it alternated between each type of fuel and measured the emissions and contrails produced. According to Rich Moore, NASA’s principal investigator from Langley, the project is the latest phase of a multi-year partnership between Boeing and NASA to research how SAF can reduce aviation’s emissions.
Sustainable Skies Conference
In November, CANSO & EUROCONTROL hosted the Sustainable Skies Conference: Contrails in Focus. The conference brought together international scientists, researchers, members of the aviation industry, and policy makers to discuss the climate impact of contrails and potential mitigation measures to avoid their formation. Presentations highlighted recent developments in technology to detect, monitor, and predict contrail formation and the operational challenges of implementing contrail mitigation measures at scale.
Looking Ahead
There is a lot of promising work taking place in and around the aviation industry to mitigate and ultimately remove contrails completely. We look forward to reporting the progress on these exciting projects:
- GE is developing a real-time, in-flight contrail prediction system for commercial aircraft by combining engine operational data with real-time satellite observations;
- Boeing is working on a comprehensive approach to mitigate contrails that will leverage satellite observations, deep learning, onboard humidity sensors, and a numerical weather prediction model;
- RTX Technologies Research Center is creating a platform for a physics-informed forecast of potential contrails up to 100 kilometers ahead of aircraft (up to 10 minutes before formation);
- Universities Space Research Association is testing a real-time, cloud-based aviation contrail prediction and observation system that will improve atmospheric data and modeling to forecast persistent contrail-forming regions;
- Northrop Grumman is designing a contrail predictive algorithm and airborne instrumentation system to allow flight crew to proactively choose optimal flight altitudes;
- GEVO is expanding its supply of Sustainable Aviation Fuel to meet the demand of the growing market, and lessen the impact of jet fuel on contrail formation.
This year, we were able to document the achievements of the global effort to eliminate contrails – all thanks to our dedicated subscribers like you. Next year, we’re looking to do even more. Can we count on you to support our efforts?
Please check out our Take Action page to find out how you can help us END THE LINES including contacting your representatives, completing surveys, signing petitions, and more.
Thank you for your ongoing support,
Michael Caldwell
Executive Director
End the Lines