Institute for a Sustainable Earth

Lance Sherry, PhD

Lance Sherry, PhD

Associate Professor, System Engineering & Operations Research

Faculty Directory

Research Focus

Contrails are the high thin visible clouds formed by jet airliners. Despite their benign look, these clouds contribute directly to global warming. By taking actions to avoid the creation of contrails, the air transportation system can reduce the anthropogenic (i.e. human-made) warming.

Current Projects

■ Method for Contrail Inventory of a National Airspace System
■ Investigate operational changes to avoid contrails
■ Change composition of contrails to reduce global warming
■ Aeromedical and Disaster Preparedness
■ Explainable – Machine Learning

Select Publications

■ Sherry L., and T. Thompson. (2020). Primer on aircraft induced clouds and their global warming mitigation options. Transportation Research Record.

■ Avila, D., L. Sherry, and T. Thompson. (2019). Reducing global warming by airline contrail avoidance: A case study of annual benefits for the contiguous United States. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 2, 100033.

 

Contact

Phone: 703-993-1711

Email: Lsherry@gmu.edu

Website: https://catsr.vse.gmu.edu/