Delta has teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study contrail avoidance. 

The research team has flown more than 40 planning flights thus far with an eye toward scheduling experimental flights and simulations. 

Contrails form when soot and water vapor emissions from jets mix with humid, cold air. Contrails trap heat in the atmosphere. 

A 2021 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Atmospheric Science found that aviation is responsible for approximately 3.5% of global climate change, with contrails responsible for 57% of that impact.

However, not all contrails are a problem. Persistent contrails are the ones that retain atmospheric heat, and they make up approximately 10% of contrails, Delta and MIT said. A challenge for airlines, however, is that conditions agreeable for the formation of those long-lasting contrails tend to occur at between 30,000 and 40,000 feet, which is where commercial airlines like to fly to maximize fuel efficiency.

Developing flight routes that avoid areas where conditions are ripe for persistent contrail formation could reduce the airline industry’s impact on climate change. 

The Delta-MIT study will make use of a MIT-created algorithm that predicts altitudes and locations where contrails are likely to form. 

The collaboration will study the causes of persistent contrails, assess the environmental impact and test possible solutions to this phenomenon. Tools and technology used in the study will be open-source licensed, so that other parties can join the effort. 

“Much of the focus on climate within the aviation field is understandably on carbon dioxide, but contrail avoidance has the potential to greatly reduce the environmental impact of air travel quickly and at low cost,” said Steven Barrett, director of MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment. 

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