A new UK-backed trial will test whether artificial intelligence can steer aircraft away from forming the vapour trails responsible for a significant share of aviation's climate impact.

Operation Blue Skies, a £5 million, 30-month programme, brings together Google, NATS, the Met Office, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London to tackle contrails across the North Atlantic.

Contrails appear when hot exhaust from aircraft engines meets cold, high-altitude air, triggering ice crystal formation that can persist and spread into cloud layers........

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