Seasonal and Geographical Trends on Contrail Persistent Regions Over CONUS

Addressing contrail formation and avoidance will play a large part in the aviation sector’s fight against climate change. Most research has focused on looking at contrail trends below 40,000 ft, the altitude range typically flown by commercial aircraft. The Sustainable Flight Demonstrator (SFD)’s Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) has a cruise altitude of 43,000 ft, much higher than that of its replacement, the Boeing 737-Max. We use the Schmidt-Appleman criterion with weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to take a closer look at contrails’ seasonal and geographical trends over the Continental United States. We find that for the lower altitude range between 30,000 and 35,000 ft, as altitude increases there are more contrail persistent regions. However, the trend reverses after 40,000 ft to 50,000 ft and the area of contrail persistent regions decreases as altitude increases. Contrail seasonal and geographical dependence also depends on altitude, with lower altitudes having more contrail persistent regions in the winter and spring in the north and northwest. Higher altitudes have more contrail persistent regions during the summer and fall in the south. These results show how the TTBW would fly through less contrail persistent regions than the B737 and how to avoid the remaining regions.