https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c...mage-vrjpq50pc
Changing flight paths ‘cuts climate damage’
The environmental impact of flying could be dramatically reduced by a technology company that will reroute aircraft to prevent them leaving ribbons of cloud in their wake.
Condensation trails, or
contrails, are responsible for an estimated 60 per cent of aviation’s impact on the climate. Studies suggest that by trapping heat in the atmosphere the trails contribute more to global warming than the carbon released when aircraft burn fuel.
Software developed by Satavia, a company based in Cambridge, will be used to produce flight plans that avoid the atmospheric conditions in which contrails form.
Making small changes to the altitudes of less than 2 per cent of flights could reduce the contrail climate impact by about 60 per cent, according to a study from Imperial College London.
Other research suggests that preventing the trails in UK airspace alone could have the same effect as cutting carbon emissions by 60 million tonnes each year or planting 300 million trees.
Adam Durant, chief executive of Satavia, said: “We could prevent a large chunk of climate change with a relatively simple solution.” His company has been working with Aviation X Lab, a scheme for helping start-ups that is backed by companies including Thales, GE Aviation and Airbus.
One airline is due to use its technology soon to modify flights to Paris and Heathrow. The RAF is also studying it......
The Imperial research suggested about 2 per cent of flights were responsible for about 80 per cent of warming contrails. The study calculated about three quarters of these flights could be changed to prevent contrails forming, without adding significantly to the amount of fuel used, and therefore without adding to CO2 emissions.
Researchers also found the worst contrails were formed in late afternoon and evening, suggesting it could be greener to take short flights earlier in the day.