@article{Quaas:2021:1748-9326/abf686,
author = {Quaas, J and Gryspeerdt, E and Vautard, R and Boucher, O},
doi = {1748-9326/abf686},
journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
pages = {1--6},
title = {Climate impact of aircraft-induced cirrus assessed from satellite observations before and during COVID-19},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abf686},
volume = {16},
year = {2021}
}

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TY  - JOUR
AB  - Aircraft produce condensation trails, which are thought to increase high-level cloudiness under certain conditions. Howeverthe magnitude of such an effect and whether this contributes substantially to the radiative forcing due to the aviation sectorremain uncertain. The very substantial, near-global reduction in air traffic in response to the COVID-19 outbreak offers anunprecedented opportunity to identify the anthropogenic contribution to the observed cirrus coverage and thickness. Here weshow, using an analysis of satellite observations for the period March-May 2020, that in the 20% of the Northern Hemispheremid-latitudes with the largest air traffic reduction, cirrus fraction was reduced by ~9 ± 1.5% on average, and cirrus emissivitywas reduced by ~2 ±5% relative to what they should have been with normal air traffic. The changes are corroborated by aconsistent estimate based on linear trends over the period 2011 – 2019. The change in cirrus translates to a global radiativeforcing of 61 ±39 mWm-2. This estimate is somewhat smaller than previous assessments.
AU  - Quaas,J
AU  - Gryspeerdt,E
AU  - Vautard,R
AU  - Boucher,O
DO  - 1748-9326/abf686
EP  - 6
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 1748-9326
SP  - 1
TI  - Climate impact of aircraft-induced cirrus assessed from satellite observations before and during COVID-19
T2  - Environmental Research Letters
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abf686
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abf686
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/87473
VL  - 16
ER  - 

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