Research & Climate Physics

Non-CO2 aviation effects—primarily contrail cirrus clouds—account for over half of aviation's effective radiative forcing. Because contrails only form in specific ice-supersaturated atmospheric layers (ISSRs), targeted flight altitude adjustments of 1,000–2,000 ft can eliminate the majority of warming with minimal fuel trade-offs. Winter's doctoral research at Cambridge (Whittle Laboratory), funded by Google and advancing research related to Project Contrails, focuses on advancing contrail prediction, data assimilation, and climate-optimal trajectory planning to reduce ~2% of global warming.