Night flights give bigger boost to global warming
The romance of night flight has inspired all kinds of artists, from writers to rock musicians. Rather less romantic is the impact of night-time flights on global warming revealed by an analysis of aircraft movements over England.
Aircraft contrails - the streams of water droplets and ice that form when hot exhaust meets cold, moist air - can persist for many hours, spreading to an average width of 2 kilometres before dispersing. They are known to contribute to global warming by trapping the infrared radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface.
Winter and night are the two biggest times for the damage to be done. While night flights accounted for only 25 per cent of air traffic at the monitored site, their contrails contributed up to 80 per cent of the warming in cloud-free conditions
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