Our latest study “Network-level aircraft trajectory planning via multi-agent deep reinforcement learning: Balancing climate considerations and operational manageability,” has been published in the Journal of Expert Systems with Applications. The study introduces a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning framework to plan climate-friendly flight routes while ensuring air traffic manageability. The findings show an 80% reduction in climate impact while maintainingContinue reading “Network-level aircraft trajectory planning via multi-agent deep reinforcement learning: Balancing climate considerations and operational manageability”
Category Archives: Sustainability
Towards Sustainable Aviation Summit: Climate-Optimized Flight Planning & SAF
Last January 28-30, 2025 two of our researchers recently participated in the Towards Sustainable Aviation Summit in Toulouse, France. This prestigious conference brought together experts from around the world to discuss how the aviation industry can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through innovative aircraft design and operational improvements. Abolfazl Simorgh and Oumarou M. Bola contributed to thisContinue reading “Towards Sustainable Aviation Summit: Climate-Optimized Flight Planning & SAF”
Climate-optimized flight planning can effectively reduce the environmental footprint of aviation in Europe at low operational costs
We are excited to announce our latest research findings on climate-friendly flight planning, now available as a pre-print on Nature Portfolio journal communications earth & environment. This study, authored by Abolfazl Simorgh and Manuel Soler from the Aircraft Operations Lab, and in the framework of the RefMap project, reveals that implementing climate-optimal flight paths—those thatContinue reading “Climate-optimized flight planning can effectively reduce the environmental footprint of aviation in Europe at low operational costs”
Enhancing GOES-16 Contrail Segmentation through Ensemble Neural Network Modeling and Optical Flow Corrections
Irene Ortiz leads groundbreaking research introducing the Contrail Detection and Segmentation Ensemble Model (CDSEM), an AI system that identifies aviation-induced contrails with 93% accuracy. This innovation offers valuable tools for understanding aviation’s environmental impact and addressing its role in global warming. The preprint is now available on TechRxiv: Irene Ortiz, Javier García-Heras, Amin Jafarimoghaddam, etContinue reading “Enhancing GOES-16 Contrail Segmentation through Ensemble Neural Network Modeling and Optical Flow Corrections”
Engage 2 Call Funds UC3M’s FLOCK Project on Formation Flight for Aviation Sustainability
Engage 2 – the SESAR 3 Knowledge Transfer Network- issued a call for PhD candidates to advance research on air traffic management (ATM). Among the selected projects is FLOCK – “Disrupting the Skies: Formation Flight for Aviation Sustainability”, led by PhD student Xiaoqing Deng, from the Aircraft Operations Lab at Universidad Carlos III de MadridContinue reading “Engage 2 Call Funds UC3M’s FLOCK Project on Formation Flight for Aviation Sustainability”