Nature Podcast These scientists chased a jet to learn more about ‘lean-burn’ contrails
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Apr 1, 2026 Christiane Vogt, an aerospace researcher who led airborne contrail sampling, and Patricia Kingori, an Oxford sociologist studying fakery in science, join the conversation. They describe chasing jets to sample contrails, differences between lean-burn and rich-burn emissions, fuel sulfur and volatile particles' roles, and the sociology and ethics of fake science in public trust.
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Chasing A Jet To Sample Contrails
- Researchers chased a commercial jet at 10 km altitude, flying 40–50 m behind it to sample its exhaust directly.
- Christiane Vogt described 40-second plunges into the plume on a packed Falcon with a nose boom for turbulent wind and particle measurements.
Lean Burn Cuts Soot But Not Initial Contrails
- Lean burn engines greatly reduced soot emissions but still produced substantial ice-crystal contrails.
- Vogt explained volatile liquid (sulfate) particles formed at high numbers and nucleated ice crystals when soot was absent.
First Atmospheric Proof Sulfates Nucleate Contrails
- Theory had predicted sulfate aerosols could nucleate ice, but this was the first atmospheric experimental evidence.
- Vogt noted theory predicted a four-order-of-magnitude range, and measurements narrowed that uncertainty for these conditions.