Articles | Volume 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/jecats-1-3-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/jecats-1-3-2026
Research article
 | 
10 Jul 2026
Research article |  | 10 Jul 2026

Concept of risk-aware contrail avoidance strategies

Audran Borella, Cameron Steer, Nicolas Bellouin, and Olivier Boucher

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Cited articles

Akhtar Martínez, C. and Jarrett, J.: Comparing two contrail models under certain and uncertain inputs, in: AIAA SCITECH 2024 Forum, AIAA SciTech Forum, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-1023, 2024. a
Akhtar Martínez, C., Eastham, S. D., and Jarrett, J. P.: Zero-dimensional contrail models could underpredict lifetime optical depth, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 12875–12891, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12875-2025, 2025. a, b
Bickel, M., Ponater, M., Burkhardt, U., Righi, M., Hendricks, J., and Jöckel, P.: Contrail cirrus climate impact: From radiative forcing to surface temperature change, J. Climate, 38, 1895–1912, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-24-0245.1, 2025. a, b, c, d
Borella, A.: Dataset supporting ”Concept of risk-aware contrail avoidance strategies” by Borella et al., Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20171762, 2026. a
Borella, A., Boucher, O., Shine, K. P., Stettler, M., Tanaka, K., Teoh, R., and Bellouin, N.: The importance of an informed choice of CO2-equivalence metrics for contrail avoidance, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9401–9417, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9401-2024, 2024. a, b, c, d
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Short summary
Targeted contrail avoidance consists of rerouting aircraft to minimise the formation of warming contrails. However, current predictions of contrail climate impact are highly uncertain. In this study, we show that some reroutings that were predicted to be beneficial for the climate are in fact damaging it. We further demonstrate that the risk of unintentionally damaging the climate can and should be included in the decision-making of contrail avoidance.
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