Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
ACP
Articles | Volume 25, issue 16
Articles | Volume 25, issue 16
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9235-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9235-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 25, issue 16
Research article
 | 
25 Aug 2025
Research article |  | 25 Aug 2025

Synoptic and microphysical lifetime constraints for contrails

Sina Maria Hofer and Klaus Martin Gierens

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Cited articles

Bier, A., Burkhardt, U., and Bock, L.: Synoptic control of contrail cirrus lifecycles and their modification due to reduced soot number emissions, J. Geophys. Res., 122, 11584–11603, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD027011, 2017. a, b, c, d
Dietz, S.: Untersuchung charakteristischer Lebenszyklen von eisübersättigten Regionen in der oberen Troposphäre, Master's thesis, Universität Innsbruck, URN: urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:1-1661, https://diglib.uibk.ac.at/ulbtirolhs/download/pdf/375792 (last access: 30 July 2025), 2012. a, b
DWD: PArallel MOdel data REtrieve from Oracle databases, https://www.dwd.de/DE/leistungen/pamore/pamore.html (last access: December 2024), 2024. a
DWD: Pamore Service, https://webservice.dwd.de/cgi-bin/spp1167/webservice.cgi, last access: 30 July 2025. a
Engberg, Z., Teoh, R., Abbott, T., Dean, T., Stettler, M. E. J., and Shapiro, M. L.: Forecasting contrail climate forcing for flight planning and air traffic management applications: the CocipGrid model in pycontrails 0.51.0, Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 253–286, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-253-2025, 2025. a
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The climate effect of contrails depends on the contrail lifetime. Thus, it is important to know what constrains the lifetime. In this paper, we characterise the two most important contrail dissolution processes via their respective timescales. Both timescales are in the order of a couple of hours, depending on the synoptic situation and the size of the contrail ice crystals. The combined timescale, which combines both processes, is the harmonic mean of the two single timescales.
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