Final Project on Contrails and Radiative Forcing
Project realization from xxx under supervision of Prof. xxx

It is predicted that air transportation will double or even triple by 2050. Thus, knowing aviation and its climate impact has become crucial not only from a policy-making perspective but has also arisen to a priority area in scientific research. Moreover, studies around contrails are relatively new. Even though first study of contrails can be traced back to World War 2 when the aircrafts were able to fly at high altitudes the first time, it was the September 11 attack that indecently revealed the significant climate impact of contrails after scientists discovered interlinks between change in diurnal temperature range (DTR) due to three-day post 911 suspension of commercial flights. 


Furthermore, it is recently believed that contrails and contrail-induced cirrus contribute to the largest radiative forcing among all anthropogenic factors of air travel. Yet there remain also the largest uncertainties and challenges around research of the topic that need to be addressed properly and solved urgently. This paper will mainly be a literature review that compares and contrasts existing research findings and aims to draw an explicit overview of this rather complexed topic as well as to identify the uncertainties in order to give a constructive outlook that prioritizes the needs for future research of the topic.

Composition of this paper as follows

Preface / Introduction
Aviation and contrails, reasons and urgency for studying contrails
A very brief history of contrail studies 


Body part
What are contrails? Definition, formation, types of contrails as well as contrail-induced cirrus
Contrails, their radiative forcing and climate impact


Problematics / Recommendation for further research of the topic
Necessity of improvement on contrail parametrization in global climate model