Night Flights and Global Warming
The condensation trails, or contrails, left in the sky by jet airliners affect atmospheric temperature, says Scientific American.During the day these contrails reflect incoming sunlight, resulting in a net cooling of the atmosphere. At night, however, they trap heat beneath them. English researchers found that “flying between 6P.M. and 6A.M. contributed between 60 and 80 percent of the climate warming that originated from contrails, even though these flights represent a quarter of the total air traffic,” states the report.
