The contrails team at Breakthrough Energy, led by Marc Shapiro, created software to enable airlines to forecast where contrails may be most likely to form, and plan flight routes to avoid those areas in flight. The software is highly sophisticated and predicts weather patterns and areas of high-humidity, and will be used in testing exactly which conditions would create lasting contrails.
Breakthrough Energy is partnering with American Airlines and Google Research to share results and research to achieve their shared goal of avoiding warming contrails. The partnership has already been fruitful; as American Airlines has flown numerable test flights to show that contrail avoidance is indeed achievable. According to Shapiro, “[a]voiding contrails might be one of the best ways to limit aviation’s climate impact, and now we have the first real-world demonstration that it’s possible to do so.” 1
[1] BE – Contrails: https://breakthroughenergy.org/news/contrails/