In a collaborative effort aimed at mitigating aviation’s environmental impact, Google Research, in partnership with American Airlines and Breakthrough Energy, has harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to design flight paths that minimize the formation of contrails—aerosol-induced cloud-like formations trailing aircraft.
Contrails, responsible for approximately 35% of aviation’s total global warming effect according to a 2022 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have a significant climate impact, surpassing even the influence of jet fuel emissions.
Typically created when airplanes navigate through humid air, contrails can persist for several minutes or even hours post-flight, contributing to atmospheric warming. Over a span of six months, American Airlines pilots engaged in a series of over 70 flights, testing Google’s AI-derived predictions against Breakthrough Energy’s open-source contrail models. Their objective was to circumvent altitudes conducive to contrail formation.
The initial outcomes of the experimentation, unveiled today, exhibit encouraging trends. Google researchers state, “After these test flights, we analyzed satellite imagery and found that the pilots were able to reduce contrails by 54%. This is the first proof point that commercial flights can verifiably avoid contrails and thereby reduce their climate impact.”
