E-CONTRAIL at the 2025 Contrail Workshop: Advancing Understanding of Aviation-Induced Cloud Impacts

The E-CONTRAIL project will be presenting its latest research this week at the 2025 Contrail Workshop, taking place from 16 to 18 September in London, UK. The workshop provides a platform for leading scientists to discuss the impacts of contrails and aviation-induced clouds on the climate.

Manuel Soler (UC3M) will present "Insights into Contrail Modelling: A Multi-Physics Eulerian Framework for Long-Term Contrail Evolution". His work introduces a new multiphysics Eulerian model that captures the full life cycle of contrails, from formation to their potential transition into cirrus clouds. By integrating factors such as spatiotemporal wind variability, nonlinear diffusion, ice-crystal habit dynamics, and multiphase settling velocities, the model enhances both accuracy and computational efficiency. This framework is poised to improve large-scale simulations of contrail plumes and their associated radiative forcing.

Irene Abuja (UC3M) will present "AI-Based Insights into Aviation’s Climate Impact Using Satellite Imagery in the E-CONTRAIL Project". Her research leverages an AI-enhanced pipeline to detect contrails and estimate radiative forcing over Europe for the full year 2023, using Meteosat Second Generation/SEVIRI data. Key findings include seasonal and daily variations in contrail formation, net daytime cooling versus long-term warming effects, and improved coverage of aged and diffused contrails. This work demonstrates how AI-enabled satellite analytics can inform contrail-aware mitigation strategies and operational policies.

The 2025 Contrail Workshop represents an excellent opportunity for E-CONTRAIL to share these advancements with the international scientific community and further the understanding of aviation’s non-CO₂ climate effects.

Stay tuned for more news and updates from the workshop in the coming days.