American Airlines and Google have said they significantly reduce the climate impact of the airline, by using artificial intelligence-based forecasting tools to prevent contrails.
Condensation trails, or “contrails” form when airplanes fly through cold and humid areas and ice crystals can form around the soot particles emitted from the engine, creating clouds that trap heat and warm the planet.
Google is using AI to predict where these contrails are likely to form, and American Airlines has added the forecasts to its flight planning system on a trial basis to show where pilots could safely shift altitude or use optional routes to avoid those areas.
American Airlines and Google said the tool could be one of the most cost-effective, scalable climate solutions available in aviation now, as the industry is facing an increasing amount of scrutiny over its impact on the climate.
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Contrails are responsible for a significant amount of global warming–around 1% to 2% according to 1% to 2%, according to Contrails.org, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to reducing aviation’s climate impact through contrail management, as part of the Breakthrough Energy group founded by Bill Gates. The group was among the collaborators in the trial.
While emissions and contrails can also be reduced by switching to sustainable aviation fuel, that is far more expensive than slightly changing the flight route. While many contrails are short-lived, some may persist for hours or even days if it is extremely humid. Research on the subject suggests that minor adjustment to flight routes and altitudes can make a difference with this.
The trial involved 2,400 flights from the U.S. to Europe. In research shared in a blog post Thursday, Google said half were given a route option to avoid creating contrails and the other half were the control group.
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The paper said that for the 112 flights that flew that option, they formed 62% fewer contrails compared to the control group, the paper said. The researchers estimated that this reduced the climatological warming from those flights by about 69%.
“We know that aviation is one of the hardest, most difficult sectors to decarbonize,” Dinesh Sanekommu, who leads Google’s work on contrails, said in an interview. “We think there’s a way that AI can help make that a reality. And the hope is, whether it’s these AI-based forecasts, whether it is doing these operational scientific demonstrations together, they all add a little bit of evidence and generate a bit of data that helps make the right decisions in the long run.”