E-CONTRAIL Project Showcased the latest Contrail Research at EGU 2025

Last week, the E-CONTRAIL project made a significant impact at the EGU General Assembly 2025 (EGU25), with three insightful presentations delivered by members of the Aircraft Operations Lab (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid). The conference, held in Vienna and online, brought together experts from around the globe to discuss key developments in geosciences, including the increasingly important topic of contrail mitigation.

The E-CONTRAIL representatives shared new project findings and methodologies aimed at better understanding and reducing the environmental impact of aircraft contrails—an area of growing focus in climate research.

Highlights from the UC3M team included:

• Raúl Quibén presented “Comparing high-fidelity LES of early contrail formation with ground-based images,”offering a novel perspective on validating simulation data with real-world observations. Link

  

  
  
  
  
  

• Amin Jafarimoghaddam discussed “On the long-term propagation of contrails using a novel high-fidelity advection-diffusion model,” introducing a new modeling approach to track contrail behavior over extended timescales. Link

  
  
  

  
  
  

• Irene Ortiz delivered “Assessing Contrail Radiative Effects: A Comparison of MTG Satellite Detections and Physics-Based Simulations,” comparing satellite data with simulation outputs to better estimate the climate impact of contrails. Link

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

With a packed programme full of high-quality sessions, EGU25 proved to be an inspiring and collaborative platform. The contributions from UC3M were well-received and underscored the importance of interdisciplinary research in tackling aviation's environmental challenges. The E-CONTRAIL team engaged in valuable exchanges with fellow researchers, expanded their network, and reaffirmed their commitment to advancing solutions for contrail mitigation.