Project Title: Global Warming Mitigation by Aircraft Induced Clouds (aka Contrails) Reduction
BASIS Advisor: Dr. Grove
Internship Location: Center for Air Transportation Systems Research
Onsite Mentor: Lance Sherry
Climate change is one of the most pressing problems that face our society today. Transportation is a significant contributor to climate change as 28% of greenhouse emissions in the United State, with civilian aircraft contributing a sizable portion of emissions. Civilian aircraft currently emit around 2% of CO2 that is released through our everyday activities. However, this ignores the effect that aircraft-induced clouds, aka contrails, have on warming. Contrail formation blocks the light that is reflected off the ground, heating the area underneath the cloud. When you include the impact that contrails have as well, that percentage goes up to 5% of the warming caused by aircraft. Such a great increase in percentage should not go unnoticed as they have a significant impact on warming. Finding ways to reduce contrail formation would have a positive impact in reducing its impact on climate change. My senior project is aimed at finding ways to reduce the impact that contrails have on climate change, evaluate the methods for their practicality and effectiveness.
My Posts
Week 10
May 23, 2022
This week was a quiet end to my internship. I continued my scouring through the AVIRIS database, looking for photos that have contrails in them. This week I’ve also started looking at the NG (next generation) AVIRIS database, however, it has not been as fruitful as the classic database. I’ve also continued to collect data […]
Week 9
May 20, 2022
Hello there. This week was spent back outside as the weather cleared up. Summer is definitely on the way as I could finally put on my shorts and enjoy the warm weather while taking pictures of contrails (again). In addition to my contrail catching activities, I also worked on creating the relative humidity vs contrail […]
Week 8
May 12, 2022
Hello there. Unfortunately, this week was hampered by poor weather, so I could not really go outside to do contrail data gathering. Due to the weather, most of the early part of this week was spent working on my presentation that would be given to CATSR (Center for Air Transportation Systems Research). I had already […]
Week 7
May 07, 2022
Something interesting actually happened this week woohoo! The week started off like any other week at this point, waking up, eating my breakfast, and going out on my backyard deck to watch airplanes and their beautiful contrails fly over. But everything changed this Wednesday when Amy told me that I had to prepare and end […]
Week 6
Apr 29, 2022
After a 2 week hiatus, I finally had my meeting with Amy to discuss the work that I have been doing. Up until this point, I was quite confident that I was on the right path with regard to my data gathering but I was not exactly sure. However, she greatly appreciated the work that […]
Week 5
Apr 19, 2022
Hello there, after returning from my spring break I took off right where I left off, collecting data. All of the previous issues that I had gone through meant that I could now collect contrail data without any issues, and this week was spent collecting a lot of it. Whenever the weather allowed me to […]
Week 4
Apr 03, 2022
This week I continued to gather data for the contrail catcher project. I had a few questions that arose while recording data, most notably how to find relative humidity and temperature data at a specific altitude. Amy had recommended that I check the aviation weather center website to find this data, however, I had some […]
Week 3
Mar 29, 2022
This week I finally had my meeting with Amy to discuss my part of the contrail catcher project. For this project, it will be mostly us two working on this project. I asked any questions that I had regarding the project and my responsibilities and made sure that I understood what I was to be […]
Week 2
Mar 18, 2022
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 […]
Week 1
Mar 17, 2022
This was the first week of my virtual internship at the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at George Mason University. I had previously interned there last summer so returning to my internship was easy. Before starting we exchanged emails, and Sunday night I received my task. I was to collect data for one of […]
First Blog
Mar 07, 2022
Contrails, those thin white man-made clouds that form as exhaust gases from an aircraft, cool and mix with the surrounding air. These unassuming clouds that are abundant in the skies above us, actually have a measurable impact on climate change. Obviously, Climate change is one of the most pressing problems that face our society today. […]