Google and the UK will steer planes around contrails over the Atlantic
The UK government and Google are launching a trial to steer aircraft around climate-warming contrails. Google announced Operation Blue Skies on Tuesday. It is the first such effort across an entire ocean airspace. AI forecasts will predict where contrails form over the North Atlantic, and controllers will nudge planes to avoid those patches of sky.
Contrails are the thin white lines behind aircraft. They form when water vapour in jet exhaust freezes around soot particles into ice. Many vanish in minutes. In cold, humid air they persist, spread into cirrus cloud, and trap heat. Google and the project partners put contrail warming at roughly a third of aviation’s total climate impact.
Paul Hodgson, Google’s technical lead on the trial, gave the BBCa blunter version of the science. His five-year-old calls the lines “sky graffiti”, he told the broadcaster’s Tech Life programme. He added that the exact figure is uncertain....
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