Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
ACP
Articles | Volume 21, issue 12
Articles | Volume 21, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9405-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9405-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 21, issue 12
Research article
 | 
18 Jun 2021
Research article |  | 18 Jun 2021

The climate impact of COVID-19-induced contrail changes

Andrew Gettelman, Chieh-Chieh Chen, and Charles G. Bardeen

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Short summary
The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant economic disruption in 2020 and severely impacted air traffic. We use a climate model to evaluate the effect of the reductions in aviation on climate in 2020. Contrails, in general, warm the planet, and COVID-19-related reductions in contrails cooled the land surface in 2020. The timing of reductions in aviation was important, and this may change how we think about the future effects of contrails.
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