As of 2021, climate change continues to produce a massive effect on the planet and its many lifeforms. With global warming being a contender to melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and drastic weather changes, improvements to air aviation can prove to be crucial in diminishing negative impacts on the planet. While there are numerous ways in which the air aviation industry has produced a negative impact on the climate, we are focusing on contrails.
The materialization of contrails in the sky have shown to trap heat below them, contributing to global warming. These man-made clouds, formed in certain air conditions by water vapor condensing onto soot in aviation engines, have heat trapping effects, effectively containing heat near the Earth’s surface. With aviation on the rise, contrail formation is building, and with contrails, come their global warming effects.
"Contrails are responsible for 3.5% of warming caused by the aviation industry."
For this project, our team has researched how we can reduce or suppress contrail production using flight path optimization. We also have created models to simulate contrail production and its effects on the climate. We have also created models to simulate popular air routes to further study how contrails can be avoided by using flight path optimization, prioritizing avoidance of cirrus cloud “red-zones'', or places they might form, in place of fuel efficiency by maneuvering altitude around these red zones.
As of 2021, climate change continues to produce a massive effect on the planet and its many lifeforms. With global warming being a contender to melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and drastic weather changes, improvements to aviation can prove to be crucial in diminishing negative impacts on the planet.
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