Climate change has reached a critical juncture, with 2024 the first year where global average temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Aviation, responsible for 2–3% of global CO₂ emissions, contributes even more through non-CO₂ effects—especially contrails and aviation-induced cloudiness—which account for about 2/3 of its radiative forcing. Yet large uncertainties remain due to model spread, regional variability, and incomplete observations. E-CONTRAIL 2 addresses this challenge by delivering an open, end-to-end capability for detecting, tracking, and quantifying the climate impact of contrails and aviation-induced cloudiness in Europe.

Building on the results of its predecessor, the project has four objectives: create labelled multi-sensor contrail datasets in Europe, openly shared via the ContrailNet portal; develop a physics-informed, data-driven framework embedding atmospheric dynamics into neural networks for robust contrail detection and tracking in multispectral imagery; quantify contrail and cirrus RF by combining multi-platform observations with radiative transfer modelling; and extend the E-CONTRAIL dashboard, incorporating 3D visualisation, animations, and contrail outbreak prediction for user-ready decision support.