Contrails that form at night or last into nighttime are the main contributors to atmospheric warming, per the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Earth undergoes radiative cooling at night — heat ...

Night flights also cause the most warming, because the clouds are just trapping heat. Daytime flights create less damaging contrails because they reflect some sunlight to offset the heat they’re ...

The situation looks worse at night. When the Sun is not shining, contrails hinder the emission of heat from the Earth's surface, contributing to global warming. The study also noted that 62 ...

Time of day also influences the climate effects of contrails. Those formed by evening and night flights have the largest warming contribution. Seasonality is also important – the most warming ...

These persistent contrails, as they are known, help to reflect solar radiation back to space, which has a cooling effect. But they also block heat from escaping from… Receive a weekly dose of ...

But not all contrails have the same warming effect. Persistent contrails at night clearly impact the climate the most. By being more precise in our interventions and focusing on those, we have the ...

Contrails that stay in the sky for a few minutes are not very worrisome, he says. "But if they form at night, they'll maybe last a little longer, and at night they can cause a warming effect," he adds ...

while contrails formed by evening and night flights, or in winter, have the largest warming contribution. The research found that climate benefits from contrail avoidance could be 15 to 40 times ...