[2024 칸 라이언즈 기후 위기 관련 캠페인]For sustainable travel, Google AI suggests a route that can eliminate contrailsSustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Silver and Innovation Bronze Awards
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▲ Contrail project. ⓒGoogle Research
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world’s largest and best creativity festival, has established the Sustainable Development Goals Lions since 2018 and is a UN (United Nations) initiative to solve problems such as humanity, the earth, and poverty. ) is awarding the Lions Trophy to creativity that contributes to the 2030 Agenda.
Cannes Lions Korea would like to introduce creativity that addresses climate issues among the 2024 Cannes Lions award-winning works.
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The third award-winning work is the ‘Contrail: Making Flight More Sustainable with Google AI’ campaign.
Title: CONTRAILS: MAKING FLYING MORE SUSTAINABLE WITH GOOGLE AI
Exhibitor: GOOGLE, Mountain View / GOOGLE CREATIVE LAB, New York
Brand: GOOGLE
Products/Services: GOOGLE RESEARCH
Awards: 2024 Cannes Lions Sustainable Development Goals Lions Silver Lion, Innovation Lions Bronze Lion
Using AI-based technology, Google developed a system that detects areas that create contrails from airplanes in advance through large-scale data processing and artificial intelligence algorithms and suggests routes for each airline to avoid contrails.
The aviation industry is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize transportation infrastructure. According to the submission data, aviation accounts for about 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions and contributes 3.5% of global warming.
Contrails are thin, long tail-shaped clouds that form when an airplane flies in the sky. A report released by the World Meteorological Organization (IPCC) considers contrails to be the main factor responsible for about 35% of global warming caused by aircraft.
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▲ Contrails account for approximately 35% of global warming responsibilities from aircraft. ⓒGoogle Research
According to an interview released by Google, a contrail is a phenomenon created when hot water vapor and soot particles from the exhaust gases from the airplane engine meet cold air and freeze when the airplane passes through an ice supersaturated area. Most contrails disappear quickly, but contrails, especially those that form in the late afternoon or evening, play a role in trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. It makes the Earth hotter.
You can’t fly without fuel. But what if you could fly in the sky without creating contrails?
The method suggested by Google’s climate and energy team is to ‘avoid flying in humid areas.’ They are researching ways for humanity to respond to climate change through AI and machine learning.
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▲ In areas with very high humidity, the contrail problem can be solved by changing the flight altitude. ⓒGoogle Research
According to Google, contrail problems can be solved by changing flight altitude in areas with very high humidity. However, in order to predict humidity according to the flight route, a large amount of weather database, flight database, and satellite database must be combined into one to find the value. We had a learning period to track the exact outline of contrail under various weather conditions through the work of gathering a huge amount of database and using numerous machine learning methods.
The contrail prediction data developed by Google was provided to actual pilots in collaboration with American Airlines and succeeded in verifying that it can be implemented in ways such as changing altitude to avoid turbulence during flight.
This is the first success story in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the aviation industry. According to the submission data, contrail formation was reduced by 54% in actual flight experiments.
Detailed information about the award-winning works can be found in the Cannes Lions archive The Walk. The 2025 Cannes Lions will be held in Cannes, France from June 16 to 20, 2025.
