- Google's contrail mitigation tech is expanding to a new region
- It uses AI to get planes to avoid cold, humid air
- Contrails account for a third of aviation's impact on the climate
Following similar projects across US airspace and the North Atlantic ocean, Google is partnering with the Cathay-Pacific airline to test its AI-powered contrail (condensation trail) mitigation technology on flights across the Asia-Pacific region.
Contrails are the thin, ice-crystal streaks of cloud that form behind planes when they hit cold, humid air. Some of these contrails can persist in the atmosphere, eventually spreading into cloud-like formations that stop heat escaping to space. It's thought that contrails account for around a third of the total climate impact of the aviation industry.
Google's idea is to use AI algorithms to nudge flights around the areas of cold and humid air that contrails need to form. Early trials with 80 Cathay-Pacific flights have led to a roughly 40% reduction in the warming impact of contrails, and now the system is being rolled out across the airline's whole network.
"Aircraft adjust their altitude slightly to steer clear of cold, humid atmospheric zones where warming contrails are likely to form, much like pilots do to navigate around turbulence," explains the Google team in a blog post.
Available, scalable, cost-effective
According to Google, the contrail-avoiding tweaks that AI recommends for flights won't have any impact on passengers and flight safety, and are in line with the routine adjustments made to flight paths for other operational reasons.
The changes to flight routes are based on a combination of data collected from satellite imagery, weather forecasts, and Google's AI prediction technology. The aim is to get information relayed to the cockpit as early as possible, which will be delivered through in-flight Wi-Fi "without interrupting standard cockpit workflows".
Also in on the scheme is the Contrails.org non-profit, which promotes the use of contrail mitigation technology. According to the organization's figures, adjusting the routes of 5% of flights could avoid up to 80% of contrail-related warming — and the Asia-Pacific region is currently the fastest growing aviation market in the world.
"Contrail mitigation remains one of the most immediately available, scalable, and cost-effective ways to reduce aviation's climate footprint, and it can get started now, with today's aircrafts and fuel," says Google.
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