Contrail observation limitations using geostationary satellites
OA Location
Author(s)
Euchenhofer, Marlene V
Prashanth, Prakash
Parke, Sydney A
Eastham, Sebastian D
Waitz, Ian A
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Contrails are a significant contributor to aviation's climate impact with an effective radiative forcing similar to that from aviation's CO₂ emissions, yet large uncertainties remain. Many observational contrail studies rely on data from a single sensor, in recent years increasingly from a geostationary imager, accepting lower spatial resolution in exchange for higher temporal and spatial coverage. However, the ability of geostationary imagery to resolve contrails has not been systematically characterized. By comparing higher spatial resolution low Earth orbit satellite imagery from Visual Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) to geostationary satellite imagery from GOES ABI, we show that the latter does not resolve 80% of the contrails nor half of the total length compared to contrails identified with VIIRS. Our findings underscore the need for multi-sensor approaches to collect observational contrail data for improved validation of climate models and to enable more rigorous and verifiable contrail avoidance strategies.
Date Issued
2025-12-28
Date Acceptance
2025-11-26
Citation
Geophysical Research Letters, 2025, 52 (24)
ISSN
0094-8276
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
52
Issue
24
Copyright Statement
© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
10.1029/2025GL118386
Subjects
aviation sustainability
CIRRUS
climate change
contrails
FREQUENCY
Geology
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
observational data
Physical Sciences
remote sensing
Science & Technology
TERRA
UNITED-STATES
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e2025GL118386
Date Publish Online
2025-12-22