Skip all navigation and jump to content Jump to site navigation
About MODIS News Data Tools /images2 Science Team Science Team Science Team

   + Home
ABOUT MODIS
MODIS Publications Link
MODIS Presentations Link
MODIS Biographies Link
MODIS Science Team Meetings Link
 

 

 

Duda, DP; Minnis, P; Khlopenkov, K; Chee, TL; Boeke, R (2013). Estimation of 2006 Northern Hemisphere contrail coverage using MODIS data. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 40(3), 612-617.

Abstract
A modified automated contrail detection algorithm (CDA) using five infrared channels available from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer onboard the Aqua satellite is used to determine linear contrail coverage over the Northern Hemisphere during 2006. Commercial aircraft flight data are employed to filter false contrail detections by the CDA. The Northern Hemisphere annual mean linear contrail coverage ranges from 0.07% to 0.40% for three different CDA sensitivities. Based on visual analyses, the medium sensitivity CDA provides the best estimate of linear contrail coverage, which averages 0.13%. If scaled to the Southern Hemisphere, the global mean coverage would be 0.07%. Coverage is greatest during winter and least during the summer with maximum coverage over the North Atlantic. Less coverage is observed over heavy European and American traffic areas, likely as a result of difficulties in detecting linear contrails that overlap with each other and with older contrail cirrus. These results are valuable for evaluating the representation of contrails and contrail cirrus within global climate models and for retrieving contrail optical properties and radiative forcing. Citation: Duda, D. P., P. Minnis, K. Khlopenkov, T. L. Chee and R. Boeke (2013), Estimation of 2006 Northern Hemisphere contrail coverage using MODIS data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 612-617, doi: 10.1002/grl.50097.

DOI:

ISSN:
0094-8276

NASA Home Page Goddard Space Flight Center Home Page