Active Climate, Earth & Environment Engineering

Technologies to Reduce and Assess Contrail Effects (TRACE)

Funder InnovateUK (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Airbus Operations Limited
Funding £2.7M
Period Mar 2025 — Sept 2027

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Airbus is building a sensor to detect the invisible atmospheric conditions that cause aircraft condensation trails—the white lines that streak across the sky and trap heat. Contrails form when aircraft fly through ice-supersaturated regions of the upper atmosphere. These non-CO2 emissions are responsible for a significant share of aviation’s climate impact, but they are poorly understood and difficult to predict. Current models cannot tell pilots where contrails will form or how long they will persist. TRACE aims to close that gap by developing three linked technologies: a multi-scale modelling capability that can predict contrail formation across entire fleets and regions, an aircraft-mounted sensor that detects ice-supersaturated air in real time, and a validation system to test whether operational avoidance actually works. If successful, the project could give airlines a practical tool to reroute flights around contrail-forming zones, reducing aviation’s warming effect without burning extra fuel. The project also accelerates the path to 100% sustainable aviation fuel by tackling specification, compatibility, and fuel-system challenges that currently limit SAF use. Together, these efforts address a blind spot in climate mitigation—the non-CO2 effects that quietly double aviation’s total climate impact.

View original technical description
**Airbus recognises that non-CO2 emissions are an important subject for aviation and is already actively working on a large portfolio of projects addressing non-CO2 emissions, their generation and climate impacts.** Airbus will continue its focus on reducing CO2 emissions from aviation, whilst - in collaboration with research institutions, universities and other key stakeholders **- further accelerate its intensive work on increasing the understanding of non-CO2 emissions generation.** This includes understanding their climate effects as well as evaluating solutions covering all mitigation options: fuel, engine technology and flight operations. Major projects led by or in partnership with Airbus comprise of extensive flight test campaigns such as the ECLIF3 (EU SESAR), VOLCAN (CORAC) and CICONIA (EU SESAR). **TRACE (Technologies to Reduce and Assess Contrail Effects) will complement this portfolio of projects by developing technology enablers for operational avoidance of contrails and contrail reduction through increased and optimised use of SAF:** TRACE will do this by: 1. Developing multi-scale contrail modelling capabilities to enable analysis across entire fleets and regions. 2. Developing an aircraft mountable sensor for the detection of Ice-supersaturated regions. 3. Developing a prototype persistent contrail avoidance validation capability. 4. Accelerating the route to 100% SAF through: * 100% non-drop-in SAF specification and clearance of new SAF pathways * De-risking compatibility challenges * Exploring alternative fuel systems for optimised SAF usage

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Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

The effect of transitioning to sustainable aviation fuels on contrails and climate (SAFice)
Advancing Aeronautics and Aerosol research to Accelerate Climate neutral aviation
Quantifying Reduction in Thermal contrails by Optimising SAF (QRITOS)
Quantifying and Reducing aviation Contrail radiative forcing (QR-CODE)
Contrails from SAF and H2 combustion; from lab experiments to global mitigation policy

Original classification

Legacy Department of Trade & Industry

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.