Project description
Modelling contrail formation to reduce aviation’s climate impact
Aircraft condensation trails – the white plumes streaming behind jets – contribute significantly to aviation's climate impact. The physical processes governing their formation remain poorly understood, limiting the ability to predict and mitigate their radiative forcing effects. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CASSANDRA project aims to develop a coupled computational framework that integrates turbulent jet dynamics with ice microphysics. It could reveal how different fuels and engine operating conditions influence ice crystal formation and contrail persistence. By assimilating experimental and flight test data using reduced-order modelling, the project will deliver physics-based insights to improve climate models and support evidence-based policies optimising the design of aero-engines for novel sustainable fuels.
Objective
Condensation trails (known as contrails), which form immediately downstream of aircraft engines, are a significant yet still poorly characterized contributor to aviation-induced radiative forcing. My project (CASSANDRA) aims to address this knowledge gap by numerically investigating the coupled microphysical and fluid-dynamics processes that control contrail formation, with a particular emphasis on how different jet fuels and operating conditions influence the activation of aerosol particles in the jet plume and the subsequent nucleation and growth of ice crystals. CASSANDRA will develop a physics and data-driven framework to assess contrails formation.
In the early stages of contrail formation, the tight coupling between turbulent jet dynamics and ice microphysics governs the resulting ice particle number density and size distribution, thereby setting the stage for contrail evolution and persistence. To capture these processes with greater accuracy, I will integrate data assimilation techniques aided by reduced order modelling approaches into the computational framework. This will enable me to leverage existing experimental and flight test data in the literature to validate and improve the predictive capabilities of my models.
This research will produce robust, physics-based insights that can improve one-dimensional climate models relying on satellite data and assumptions about ice-nucleating particles. Overall, this will develop a tool for Coupled Aerosol-jet Simulation and Sensitivity Analyisis with Non-linerar Data Recovery and Assimilation (CASSANDRA). The new knowledge will also support evidence-based policymaking, informing strategies to optimize the development of aero-engine architectures for novel sustainable fuels, and ultimately mitigate the non-CO2 climate impact of aviation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
- natural sciences physical sciences classical mechanics fluid mechanics fluid dynamics computational fluid dynamics
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering aeronautical engineering
- natural sciences computer and information sciences computational science multiphysics
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences meteorology atmospheric circulation atmospheric turbulence
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
56127 Pisa
Italy
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