Researchers analyzed the soot particles that make up contrails — the infamous white trails of planes. The results are surprising: they contribute to more than half of aviation’s total climate impact.
The formation of these white “clouds” that accompany planes in their flight involves a layered process, mixing hot exhaust gases with the cold upper atmosphereexplains to .
published in September in Environmental Science & Technology, was conducted by the University at Albany and led by Fangqun Yu.
The study authors found that, instead of dissipating into spacethese clouds retain heatand therefore constitute more than 50% of aircraft.
The researchers studied the process of contrail formation, analyzing the role of non-volatile particles (soot) and volatile particles.
“It is known that soot particlesformed during the combustion of fuel in aircraft engines, dominate the formation of ice particles of the tracks,” Yu explained to .
“As the aviation industry moves towards sustainable fuels and new engine technologies, soot emissions are being significantly reduced and volatile particles formed in engine exhaust plumes (after issuance) become important to analyze.”
This is how the researcher justifies the study, who wants to find solutions for more sustainable aviationat a time when planes are responsible for around 2.5% of the planet’s airflow.
What is new is something else: “Our research indicates that volatile particles can contribute to the number of ice particles in a smoke trail at average levels of soot emissions and average air temperatures, widening the range of conditions under which these particles become a factor“, these.
And how are these traces reduced? You sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), manufactured from renewable sources, produce fewer particles of soot during combustion and have the potential to reduce these heat-trapping clouds.
Still, for SAFs to be effectively applied, the researchers explain, they will have to be adopted en masse — across the entire aviation sector.
