Nighttime flights 'boost warming'

15 June 2006



Night flights by aircraft are much more damaging to the environment than air travel during the day, a study shows.

The reason, says a UK team, is that vapour trails from aircraft have a greater warming effect during darkness.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say cutting night flights could help minimise the climate impact of the aviation industry.

Winter flights have a bigger effect on global warming than flights during the rest of the year, they add.

The warming effect is due to condensation trails (contrails) created by aircraft. They have two opposing influences on the climate; warming from trapping heat leaving the Earth like a blanket, and cooling from reflecting sunlight back into space.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5082918.stm

Thanks for the post.

...effect by reflecting sunlight back out thus keeping it cooler?...just asking.:shrug:

Are you somewhere near Plymouth, Massachusetts?

Just listen to the aircraft bands on a scanner at night. There are hundreds of freight planes in the air every night. I would guess there are lots of military night flights too.

Jets put out massive amounts of carbon dioxide, and are a major contributor to global warming. The effect of the contrails has to be a very small part of the picture. Fuel for a jet flight is measured in the thousands of gallons. It makes no sense that you can burn several thousand gallons of jet fuel and not put out huge amounts of carbon dioxide.

In fact, I read somewhere that there was a measurable decrease in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the weeks after 9/11, when all commercial flights were grounded.

The article has a quote:
""Aircraft currently only have a small effect on climate," said Dr Piers Forster of the University of Leeds. "

Sounds like serious misinformation to me!

...here, on the ground, co2 is absorbed by plants. Up in the air there is no absorption, it just stays there, building up more every day.