Week 2

Hello there. My Second week at CATSR was much quieter than the first. This week I spent most of my time doing research for my senior project, reading articles and papers which deepened my understanding of the subject. I spent most of this time looking at different methods of reducing contrail formation which is the best way to mitigate their effect on climate change. Some long-term solutions such as reducing fuel burn by investing in newer, more aerodynamic fuselages, engine designs that lower soot (which allows water molecules to condense on them causing ice formation and hence contrails), and considering biofuels. However, the most probable and immediate solution is rerouting flight paths so that we avoid airspace that is more susceptible to contrail formation. I think that i will be putting more of my effort for the senior project into how we can reroute these flight paths.

I also set up a weekly meeting time with the other graduate student to work on the project. These meetings will start next week and should be recurring once a week on Wednesdays till the end of my senior project. Over email, we discussed that we would go over the short description I sent last week during our first meeting. Knowing this I am assuming that my internship work will start to pick up. Until then I plan on continuing my background research. Looking forward to next week!