Aviation Sustainability through Hyperspectral Image Analysis Methodology for Aircraft-Induced Clouds

Ninety-eight percent (98%) of anthropogenic global heating is the result of Green House gases (GHG). The remaining 2% is attributed to the Global Heating effects of Aircraft Induced Clouds (AIC). AIC form from soot and water vapor emitted from jet engines at high altitudes in favorable atmospheric conditions. The AIC absorb, scatter, and reflect back to Earth, the outgoing longwave radiation results in increased temperatures. This radiation would otherwise escape to space resulting in no warming effect.Reducing AIC would have an immediate impact on the Earth’s temperature structure, unlike GHGs which take between 20 and 40 years to have an impact. Researchers have proposed an AIC Abatement Program (AAP) to modify flight plans without additional fuel burn or CO2 emission costs to reduce AICs. A critical component of the technology to enable AAP is the ability to accurately identify AIC from publicly available aerial and satellite images.This paper describes a method for hyperspectral analysis of aerial images to accurately identify AIC, based on naturally-formed altostratus and cumulus clouds. The method, a case study, and future work are provided.