It may seem like the work surrounding contrails is very academic, reserved for scientists and aviation experts. It’s one thing to be a concerned citizen, aware of contrails and their impact on the climate, and another to be involved in the solution, the research going into making contrail avoidance a reality. With this in mind, the team at Breakthrough Energy has been working diligently to bring contrail research into the hands of everyday observers.
Enter the Contrails Observer App – if you haven’t already, check it out, it’s available for iOS and Android. The app is designed to further the understanding of contrail-forming regions and improve the current prediction models. Users are able to take photos of visible contrails which are matched by the app to their corresponding flights. Current observation models from satellites, aircraft sensors, and ground cameras, though growing more robust, have gaps in visibility that can be enhanced through these photos. They can expand the database to better predict regions that produce warming contrails.
For the more tech savvy contrail observers, a hackathon is underway. Built around images captured by the app, the goal is to dive deeper into the existing datasets. These datasets cover where the contrails are occurring, where the planes are flying, where the satellites are taking photos, where these satellites are seeing contrails, and where contrails are expected to form. This is an excellent opportunity to broaden the knowledge base around contrail prediction and refine the current tools that researchers are using to detect warming contrails.
With this app, anyone can contribute to the contrail cause with the click of a camera. Let’s keep our eyes on the skies and continue the quest to End the Lines.