Contrails.org

Contrails.org is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit applied research organization working to reduce aviation's climate impact through contrail management. Its team brings together scientists, technologists, pilots, and aviation-industry experts from the United States and United Kingdom. The organization focuses on three interconnected areas: science to improve the modeling, observation, and measurement of contrails; technology to develop open models, tools, protocols, and common frameworks; and implementation to conduct real-world trials and resolve operational barriers. Its stated goal is to make intelligent route planning capable of eliminating climate-warming contrails at near-zero cost.

Contrails.org reports that contrails cause 1–2% of global warming and estimates that adjusting approximately 5% of flights could avoid up to 80% of contrail-induced warming. Its work is supported by government, philanthropic, and institutional funding from organizations including Breakthrough Energy, Orca Sciences, Google.org, UKRI, ATI, SESAR 3 JU, and the European Union. The organization publishes scientific research and develops open tools including pycontrails, the Contrails API, the Contrails Map, ContrailBench, and the Impact Explorer. It also supports real-world trials with airlines and air navigation service providers to establish standardized, scalable contrail-avoidance practices.