The focus of the CONTRAIL project was to develop and demonstrate an EO-based service in support to the continuous assessment of the environmental effects of increasing volumes of air traffic, by monitoring the daily contrail and cirrus cloud coverage, for one year, over Europe and the North Atlantic.

Two applications of the monitoring effort were included in the project:

1. Environmental impact. Assessment of the radiative forcing of:
   • Contrails
   • Changes in cirrus cloud coverage and properties that can be related to changes in air traffic density
2. If, at some stage, the environmental impact of line-contrail induced cirrus clouds is judged to be unacceptably high by political and regulatory authorities, then this may have traffic flow and capacity implications. This may include the diversion of air traffic around air masses susceptible to the formation of contrails. Re-routing, exclusively for safety reasons, is already performed around volcanic ash clouds and convective storms. In order to prepare for any such eventuality, satellite-derived contrail maps will be used to assess the User’s ability to forecast contrail formation.

With the aim of providing historical context for the one year intensive study period, contrail maps for the years 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000 were also be prepared.