In Situ Observations of Ice Particle Losses in a Young Persistent Contrail

We describe results of in situ observations of a 1 to 2-min old contrail in the vortex Phase generated from soot-rich exhaust (> 10^15 emitted soot particles per kg-fuel burned). Simultaneous measurements of soot (EIsoot) and apparent ice (AEIice) particle number emission indices show a pronounced anti-correlation in the vertical contrail profile. AEIice decrease by about 75% with increasing distance below the contrail-producing aircraft,while EIsoot increase by an equivalent relative fraction, therefore strongly suggesting sublimation causing the ice particle losses. Quantifying these losses in measurements helps to validate and improve contrail parameterizations used to estimate the climate Impact of contrails and contrail cirrus.