did you ever see the contrails left by planes? They have an important impact on the climate, since they contribute to the warming of the atmosphere. And against them they want to fight Google and Bill Gates through his foundation, Breakthrough Energy, using Artificial Intelligence.
This week Google reported on its project, which also includes American Airlines, which is based not only on AI but on satellite imagery, to forecast where contrails are most likely to form.
The wakes are born when the hot air from the planes mixes with the cold and dry atmosphere. When the water vapor condenses, small ice crystals are formed that reflect the sunlight.
The proposal is that the planes try to fly where there is less humidity, adjusting the altitude.
The contribution of Bill Gates and Google to reduce contrails on flights
Contrails were detected and labeled using contrail forecast maps from Google and Breakthrough Energy, with investment from Bill Gates. An Artificial Intelligence was trained with the data to locate them in satellite images.
This is how the wake prediction model.
Scott Geraedts, software engineer at Google, explained: “It’s like a big map that says ‘Look, planes flying at this altitude will make a contrail. So let’s not fly any planes over there.”
The first results were more than encouraging: test flights reduced contrails by 54%.
There is another detail: the modification involves the use of just 2% additional fuel. According to the Google report, “it is necessary adjust a small percentage of flights to avoid most of the contrail heating. Therefore, the total impact on fuel could be as low as 0.3% on one airline’s flights.”