Some contrails can contribute to global warming. Contrails—pure ice clouds (“cirrus”) that form from aircraft exhaust under specific cold conditions—can trap heat in the atmosphere, sometimes creating ...

Suggested Citation: "1 Overview." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Developing a Research Agenda on Contrails and Their Climate Impacts. Washington, DC: The National ...

An e-mail from Jose asks about the term ``contrail'' and wonders if these have any effect on our weather. The word contrail is really just a contraction for condensation trail, which is that cloud ...

If you've ever looked up at the sky and seen an airliner flying overhead, you may have noticed white trails behind it. Contrary to the popular urban myth, these are not chemical agents or chemtrails, ...

Contrails – short for condensation trails – are linear clouds made up of ice crystals that form behind jet aircraft at high altitudes. These artificial cirrus clouds are formed when hot and moist ...

In the skies over Hampton Roads it is common to see contrails, cloud-like strips of condensed water left behind by aircrafts at high altitude. Some dissipate within minutes, but depending on the ...

ICAO is reviewing new data showing that reducing contrails will do more to help the aviation industry meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals than the sector’s ambitious target of achieving ...

In a new study, co-authored by Fangqun Yu of UAlbany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, a team of researchers found that modern “lean-burn” aircraft engines still produce the conditions necessary ...

Long-lived contrails form predominantly not in cloud-free skies, but within already existing ice clouds. This is the conclusion reached by a team of scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich, the ...

Contrails appeared over Bass Strait on Friday morning. But what are contrails and how do they form?