Altitudinal Trends on Seasonal and Geographic 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 (B737). We use the Schmidt-Appleman criterion with annual weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to take a closer look at contrails’ altitude dependent seasonal and geographical trends over the Continental United States. The results compare the contrail persistent regions the TTBW would fly through to that from the B737.