EarthCARE sees contrails over the Bay of Biscay

The EarthCARE mission provides the perfect suite of instruments to detect contrails, characterise their optical properties, and quantify their radiative effects.

The image shows an overpass of a contrail over the Bay of Biscay on 30 April 2025. The characteristic shape of the contrails is visible in colour from the shortwave of the Broadband Radiometer and in black and white from the thermal infrared channel of the Multi-Spectral Imager.