Airplane contrails are a tricky, and surprising, contributor to global warming

Up the center in a vast blue sky two white lines of smoke trail a small airlpaine near the top of the image.

Commercial airplanes have made strides in reducing their carbon emissions, but the exhaust clouds trailing behind them can still have long-term impacts on the environment, a new study suggests. 

Researchers from Imperial College London found that condensation trails, or contrails, created by aircraft exhaust fumes trap heat in the atmosphere. As a result, these thin cloud streaks have a greater impact on global warming than that of carbon emissions from combustion of jet fuel, according to the study.