Aviation's climate impact is partly due to contrails—condensation that a plane streaks across the sky when it flies through icy and humid layers of the atmosphere. Contrails trap heat that radiates ...

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 ...

The white trails left by high-flying airplanes may be a pretty sight in a blue sky, but bomber crews dislike them for good reason: an airplane may look from the ground like an almost invisible speck, ...

The challenge of addressing aviation’s non-carbon dioxide emissions is receiving greater attention, with the climatic impact associated with tell-tale signs in the sky coming under increased study.

Assuming that the radiative forcing impact of aviation-induced contrails is sufficiently strong to justify mitigation measures, it is likely that operational strategies that avoid flying through ...

Four research figures show how contrails appear in two satellite views (left) and two photographs taken from the MIT Green Building. Aviation’s climate impact is partly due to contrails — condensation ...