AI to help planes avoid climate-warming vapour trails
A new UK-led trial is using AI to predict and avoid the formation of climate-warming contrails from aircraft. The project, involving Google and various research institutions, aims to reduce the environmental impact of aviation by adjusting flight paths.
Why it matters
This represents a significant application of AI technology to mitigate the climate impact of the aviation industry, a major contributor to global warming.
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Contrails are formed when exhaust fumes from planes turn into ice crystals
We've all looked up and seen the white lines trailing behind aircraft in the sky.
Known as contrails, these icy clouds contribute to climate change, and scientists have been trying to work out how to stop them.
Now, a £5m UK trial will test whether AI can help, by predicting where warming contrails are likely to form and getting planes to avoid those areas.
It will focus on the Shanwick Oceanic airspace in the eastern half of the North Atlantic corridor which accounts for approximately 5% of global contrail warming.
The 30-month Operation Blue Skies project brings together Google, the UK government, the Met Office, air traffic control provider National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and researchers at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.
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