Contrail cirrus coverage and radiative forcing from satellite data

Abstract

Within the ESA DUE project 'Contrails' the amount of linear contrails has been analysed using ENVISAT AATSR and NOAA AVHRR data. The impact of air-traffic on cirrus coverage as well as the first time on outgoing radiation flux density has been estimated by using simultaneous observations from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) SEVIRI instrument and high spatial and temporal resolution air-traffic data from EUROCONTROL (European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation). The study shows some correlations between air-traffic density on the one side and cirrus coverage, outgoing long and short wave radiant flux densities on the other side. The relation between air-traffic and radiation fluxes depends strongly on daytime and season.