In the current turbulent world situation, it is always refreshing to read positive news, especially when it links the areas of AI and climate protection. Google researchers have developed software that uses artificial intelligence to prevent airplanes from forming contrails. Why is that important? Contrails, especially those that form in the evening, have a strong negative impact on geothermal heat. They act like a mirror, reflecting back the heat that hits Earth during the day.
This effect is responsible for up to 35% of global warming caused by air travel. How does this work? The research team found that only a smaller percentage of flights produce the majority of contrails. These only occur when an aircraft flies through particularly humid air layers at certain altitudes. A minimal adjustment of the flight altitude, be it up or down, can effectively prevent the formation of contrails. Although this effect has been known for a long time, the problem was that weather models had difficulty predicting the layers of air in which contrails would appear. This is exactly what the new AI from Google can now predict precisely. The system is already being successfully tested by the world’s largest airline and is to be rolled out further in the near future.
https://blog.google/technology/ai/ai-airlines-contrails-climate-change/
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