Suggested Citation: "1 Overview." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Developing a Research Agenda on Contrails and Their Climate Impacts. Washington, DC: The National ...

The characteristics of a contrail depend initially on the size, shape and engine position of the aircraft that created it ...

Some contrails can contribute to global warming. Contrails—pure ice clouds (“cirrus”) that form from aircraft exhaust under specific cold conditions—can trap heat in the atmosphere, sometimes creating ...

An e-mail from Jose asks about the term ``contrail'' and wonders if these have any effect on our weather. The word contrail is really just a contraction for condensation trail, which is that cloud ...

If you've ever looked up at the sky and seen an airliner flying overhead, you may have noticed white trails behind it. Contrary to the popular urban myth, these are not chemical agents or chemtrails, ...

In the skies over Hampton Roads it is common to see contrails, cloud-like strips of condensed water left behind by aircrafts at high altitude. Some dissipate within minutes, but depending on the ...

Small changes to aircraft flight paths to avoid the atmospheric conditions that create condensation trails – known as contrails – could reduce aviation’s global warming impact by nearly half, a new ...

Contrails – short for condensation trails – are linear clouds made up of ice crystals that form behind jet aircraft at high altitudes. These artificial cirrus clouds are formed when hot and moist ...

Research team identifies common environmental conditions for the formation of contrails and provides initial insights into their impact on the climate. Long-lived contrails form predominantly not in ...

Contrail avoidance could help aviation reduce its climate impact. As Europe’s aviation industry looks toward changes in climate policy, experts hope that detailed analysis of contrail effects will ...

Long-lived contrails form predominantly not in cloud-free skies, but within already existing ice clouds. This is the conclusion reached by a team of scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich, the ...