Contrail Modelling for 4D Trajectory Optimisation

With the currently foreseen growth of air traffic globally, the effects of aircraft condensation trails (contrails) are predicted to become significant over large regions well before 2050. Currently, research regarding the persistence or dissipation timescales of contrails is still ongoing, with a particular focus on their evolution into cirrus clouds, since these clouds have been shown to contribute significantly to global warming. A 4-dimensional-trajectory optimisation model for contrail avoidance designates a persistent contrail region as the region that both satisfies the Schmidt-Appleman criterion and is supersaturated with respect to ice, and subsequently a contrail formation cost is associated with such a region. The contrail algorithm is exploited both as a stand-alone and within the multi-objective trajectory optimisation software to determine and optimise the formation, persistence, and radiative contribution of contrails occurring along a number of trajectories flown under different weather conditions at various times of the day.