As airlines test new routes and researchers refine models, contrails are shifting from an afterthought of flight to a potential tool for cutting the carbon footprint of aviation.

Most of us first spot them as children—the white lines in the blue sky that are the telltale sign of a flight overhead. Contrails are an instant visual reminder of air travel, and a source of much ...

Contrails conjure a sense of something overwhelming and ineffable, as terrifying as it is beautiful. By Kate Folk I spend most days working from home, in my apartment in San Francisco’s Richmond ...

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 ...

Those white vapor trails crisscrossing the sky carry a hidden climate price tag comparable to the damage from jet fuel itself. Research from Chalmers University of Technology reveals that aviation ...

Contrails are clouds made of ice particles, which can be created when airplanes fly through cold, humid air. Persistent contrails are estimated to have a warming climate impact. Flight tests will ...

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 ...

Aviation's climate impact is partly due to contrails—condensation that a plane streaks across the sky when it flies through icy and humid layers of the atmosphere. Contrails trap heat that radiates ...