E-CONTRAIL 2 Research Presented at EarthCARE 2026 Science and Validation Workshop

E-CONTRAIL 2 researcher Ermioni Dimitropoulou from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMIB) participated in the EarthCARE 2026 Science and Validation Workshop. A forum organized by the European Space Agency and held in Oxford, United Kingdom, from 8–12 June 2026.

During the workshop, Ermioni delivered an oral presentation entitled "The added value of EarthCARE for contrail detection and radiative impact assessment." The presentation showcased how EarthCARE observations can support the objectives of the SESAR-funded E-CONTRAIL 2 project by addressing key challenges in contrail research.

Take a look at the presentation

The presentation highlighted that the original E-CONTRAIL project identified important uncertainties in contrail detection and radiative forcing (RF) estimation. EarthCARE's unique combination of satellite measurements offers new opportunities to address these uncertainties by providing complementary observations of clouds and the atmosphere.

Building on this foundation, E-CONTRAIL 2 will integrate observations from three EarthCARE instruments—the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI), the Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID), and the Broadband Radiometer (BBR)—to improve contrail detection, cloud characterization, and radiative forcing assessment. Combining these complementary datasets is expected to strengthen the project's capability to better quantify the climate impacts of aviation-induced contrails.

The presentation also shared preliminary results, which demonstrate the significant added value of EarthCARE observations for contrail detection and radiative impact assessment. These findings support the project's ongoing efforts to reduce uncertainties in the assessment of aviation's non-CO₂ climate effects through the use of advanced satellite observations and improved analysis methodologies.