Linear Contrails Detection, Tracking and Matching with Aircraft Using Geostationary Satellite and Air Traffic Data

Abstract

Climate impact models of the non-CO2 emissions of aviation are still subject to significant uncertainties. Condensation trails, or contrails, are one of these non-CO2 effects. In order to validate the contrail simulation models, a dataset of observations covering the entire lifetime of the contrails will be required, as well as the characteristics of the aircraft which produced them. This study carries on the work on contrail observation from geostationary satellite by proposing a new way to track contrails and identify the flight that produced it using geostationary satellite infrared images, weather data as well as air traffic data. It solves the tracking and the identification problem as one, each process leveraging information from the other to achieve a better overall result. This study is a new step towards a consistent contrail dataset that could be used to validate contrail models.

Keywords

• condensation trails
• non-CO₂ climate impact of aviation
• contrail tracking
• matching contrails with aircraft
• image segmentation
• instance segmentation