Articles | Volume 25, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4131-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4131-2025
Research article
 | 
10 Apr 2025
Research article |  | 10 Apr 2025

Investigating the limiting aircraft-design-dependent and environmental factors of persistent contrail formation

Liam Megill and Volker Grewe

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Cited articles

Agarwal, A., Meijer, V. R., Eastham, S. D., Speth, R. L., and Barrett, S. R. H.: Reanalysis-Driven Simulations May Overestimate Persistent Contrail Formation by 100 %–250 %, Environ. Res. Lett., 17, 014045, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac38d9, 2022. a
Appleman, H.: The Formation of Exhaust Condensation Trails by Jet Aircraft, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 34, 14–20, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477-34.1.14, 1953. a
Barton, D. I., Hall, C. A., and Oldfield, M. K.: Design of a Hydrogen Aircraft for Zero Persistent Contrails, Aerospace, 10, 688, https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10080688, 2023. a
Benetatos, C., Eleftheratos, K., Gierens, K., and Zerefos, C.: A Statistically Significant Increase in Ice Supersaturation in the Atmosphere in the Past 40 Years, Scientific Reports, 14, 24760, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-75756-9, 2024. a
Bier, A. and Burkhardt, U.: Variability in Contrail Ice Nucleation and Its Dependence on Soot Number Emissions, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 124, 3384–3400, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029155, 2019. a
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This study uses ERA5 data to better understand the relative importance of the factors limiting persistent contrail formation. We develop climatological relationships to estimate potential persistent contrail formation for existing as well as future aircraft and propulsion system designs. We identify latitudes and pressure levels where the introduction of novel aircraft designs would result in significant changes in potential persistent contrail formation compared to existing conventional aircraft.
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