The BeCoM project, funded by the EU, aims to better understand the impact of condensation trails on the climate. This will contribute to mitigating the climate impact of non-CO2 emissions from air transportation.
The project will enable the prediction of the precise location and timing of condensation trail formation. It will employ multi-level approaches, combining observations and measurements, modeling, and predictions based on advanced numerical methods and AI. Recommendations for strategies to combat the climate impact of air transportation will also be developed.
BeCoM will largely reduce (>50%) or eliminate the global mean contrail radiative forcing, hence a substantial reduction of aviation’s share of global warming to be achievable on a much shorter time horizon. This is facilitated by a confidently forecast of persistent contrails, the reduced weather-dependent individual contrail radiative effects, and the successful avoidance of strongly warming contrails via trajectory optimization.