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CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Contrail Observation Limitations Using Geostationary Satellites
Geophysical research letters, Vol.52(24), p.n/a
12/28/2025
Appears in Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT)
Abstract
Contrails are a significant contributor to aviation's climate impact with an effective radiative forcing similar to that from aviation's CO2${\text{CO}}_{2}$emissions, yet large uncertainties remain. Many observational contrail studies rely on data from a single sensor, in recent years increasingly from a geostationary imager, accepting lower spatial resolution in exchange for higher temporal and spatial coverage. However, the ability of geostationary imagery to resolve contrails has not been systematically characterized. By comparing higher spatial resolution low Earth orbit satellite imagery from Visual Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) to geostationary satellite imagery from GOES ABI, we show that the latter does not resolve 80% of the contrails nor half of the total length compared to contrails identified with VIIRS. Our findings underscore the need for multi‐sensor approaches to collect observational contrail data for improved validation of climate models and to enable more rigorous and verifiable contrail avoidance strategies. Plain Language Summary About half of aviation's climate impact is estimated to come from non‐CO2${\text{CO}}_{2}$effects, predominantly contrails, which are the line‐shaped ice clouds that sometimes form behind airplanes. Many contrails can be avoided by small aircraft altitude adjustments to bypass the often thin layers of higher humidity in which they form and persist, making this an attractive opportunity for near‐term climate impact mitigation. Since the ability to forecast the location of these thin regions in the upper atmosphere is limited, studies often rely on observations of contrails in imagery from geostationary satellites instead. However, the impacts of the limited spatial resolution of such geostationary images on contrail observations have not been rigorously assessed. In this study, we compare images taken from low Earth orbit satellites, which are higher in resolution, to those taken at the same time and location using a geostationary satellite. We find that the lower‐resolution geostationary images miss 80% of the contrails observable with the higher‐resolution instrument. These results have important implications for understanding contrail impacts and developing observation and forecasting systems for avoiding contrails. The results suggest that it will be necessary to combine information from multiple sensors to validate climate models and inform mitigation strategies. Key Points Contrails are manually identified in false‐color satellite imagery from a geostationary sensor and a sensor in low Earth orbit Differences in the number, cover, and the geometric features of the two observed contrail populations are analyzed and compared The study finds that geostationary imagers miss 80% of all contrails and half of their total length observed from low Earth orbit imagers
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Details
- Title
- Contrail Observation Limitations Using Geostationary Satellites
- Creators
- Marlene V. Euchenhofer - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPrakash Prashanth - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologySydney A. Parke - American Institute of Aeronautics and AstronauticsSebastian D. Eastham - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyIan A. Waitz - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Publication Details
- Geophysical research letters, Vol.52(24), p.n/a
- Academic Unit
- Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT); Emissions
- Number of pages
- 9
- Grants
- 13-C-AJFE-MIT-086, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA
- Grant note
- U.S Federal Aviation Administration Office of Environment and Energy FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and the Environment (13‐C‐AJFE‐MIT)
- Identifiers
- 99901364590201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article