Contrail Observation Limitations Using Geostationary Satellites

Abstract Contrails are a significant contributor to aviation's climate impact with an effective radiative forcing similar to that from aviation's emissions, yet large uncertainties remain. Many observational contrail studies rely on data from a single sensor, in recent years increasingly from a geostationary imager, accepting lower spatial resolution in exchange for higher temporal and spatial coverage. However, the ability of geostationary imagery to resolve contrails has not been systematically characterized. By comparing higher spatial resolution low Earth orbit satellite imagery from Visual Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) to geostationary satellite imagery from GOES ABI, we show that the latter does not resolve 80% of the contrails nor half of the total length compared to contrails identified with VIIRS. Our findings underscore the need for multi‐sensor approaches to collect observational contrail data for improved validation of climate models and to enable more rigorous and verifiable contrail avoidance strategies.