A brief interval when the skies were clear of jets unmasked an effect on climate.
Abstract
The potential of condensation trails (contrails) from jet aircraft to affect regional-scale surface temperatures has been debated for years1,2,3, but was difficult to verify until an opportunity arose as a result of the three-day grounding of all commercial aircraft in the United States in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. Here we show that there was an anomalous increase in the average diurnal temperature range (that is, the difference between the daytime maximum and night-time minimum temperatures) for the period 11–14 September 2001. Because persisting contrails can reduce the transfer of both incoming solar and outgoing infrared radiation4,5 and so reduce the daily temperature range, we attribute at least a portion of this anomaly to the absence of contrails over this period.
Similar content being viewed by others
Main
We analysed maximum and minimum temperature data6 from about 4,000 weather stations throughout the conterminous United States (the 48 states not including Alaska and Hawaii) for the period 1971–2000, and compared these to the conditions that prevailed during the three-day aircraft-grounding period. All sites were inspected for data quality and adjusted for the time of observation.
Because the grounding period commenced after the minimum temperatures had been reached on the morning of 11 September and ended before maximum temperatures were attained on 14 September (at noon, Eastern Standard Time), we staggered the calculation of the average diurnal temperature range (DTR) across adjacent days (for example, 11 September maxima minus 12 September minima). We repeated this procedure for the three-day periods immediately before and after the grounding period, and also for the same periods (8–11, 11–14 and 14–17 September) for each year from 1971 to 2000.
DTRs for 11–14 September 2001 measured at stations across the United States show an increase of about 1.1 °C over normal 1971–2000 values (Fig. 1). This is in contrast to the adjacent three-day periods, when DTR values were near or below the mean (Fig. 1). DTR departures for the grounding period are, on average, 1.8 °C greater than DTR departures for the two adjacent three-day periods.
This increase in DTR is larger than any during the 11–14 September period for the previous 30 years, and is the only increase greater than 2 standard deviations away from the mean DTR (s.d., 0.85 °C). Moreover, the 11–14 September increase in DTR was more than twice the national average for regions of the United States where contrail coverage has previously been reported to be most abundant (such as the midwest, northeast and northwest regions)7.
Day-to-day changes in synoptic atmospheric conditions can affect regional DTRs8. In particular, a lack of cloud cover helps to increase the maximum (and reduce the minimum) temperature. Maps of the daily average outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR)9,10 — a proxy for optically thick clouds — show reduced cloudiness (that is, larger OLR) over the eastern half of the United States on 11 September, but more cloud (smaller OLR) over parts of the west. Cloud cover subsequently decreased in the west and increased over much of the eastern half of the country during the next two days, producing predominantly negative three-day OLR changes in the east and positive values in parts of the west.
Our findings indicate that the diurnal temperature range averaged across the United States was increased during the aircraft-grounding period, despite large variations in the amount of cloud associated with mobile weather systems (Fig. 2). We argue that the absence of contrails was responsible for the difference between a period of above-normal but unremarkable DTR and the anomalous conditions that were recorded.
References
Changnon, S. A. J. Appl. Meteorol. 20, 496–508 (1981).
Travis, D. J. & Changnon, S. A. J. Weather Modification 29, 74–83 (1997).
Sassen, K. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 78, 1885–1903 (1997).
Duda, D. P., Minnis, P. & Nguyen, L. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 4927–4937 (2001).
Meerkotter, R. et al. Ann. Geophys. 17, 1080–1094 (1999).
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. TD3200/3210 Data Set for 1971–2001 (Natl Climate Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina, 2001).
DeGrand, J. Q., Carleton, A. M., Travis, D. J. & Lamb, P. J. Appl. Meteorol. 39, 1434–1459 (2000).
Karl, T. R. et al. Bull Am. Meteorol. Soc. 74, 1007–1023 (1993).
Liebmann, B. & Smith, C. A. Bull Am. Meteorol. Soc. 77, 1275–1277 (1996).
http://www.cdc.noaa.gov (NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Travis, D., Carleton, A. & Lauritsen, R. Contrails reduce daily temperature range. Nature 418, 601 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/418601a
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/418601a
This article is cited by
-
A Detailed PAH and Soot Model for Complex Fuels in CFD Applications
Flow, Turbulence and Combustion (2022)
-
Tracking the global reduction of marine traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic
Nature Communications (2021)
-
The COVID-19 lockdowns: a window into the Earth System
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2020)
-
Formation and radiative forcing of contrail cirrus
Nature Communications (2018)
-
Approaches to Observe Anthropogenic Aerosol-Cloud Interactions
Current Climate Change Reports (2015)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.