Climate-damaging contrails can be avoided

Contrails that "shadow" the sun and thus influence the climate can be avoided. This was the conclusion reached by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Eurocontrol's Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC). The researchers used the phase of low aircraft movements during the coronavirus pandemic to analyze the upper airspace over northwest Germany and the Benelux countries and found that long-lasting contrails can be avoided by slightly changing the flight altitude. The method is an important step towards significantly reducing the climate impact of air traffic in the long term. (aum)