  The purpose of this study is to provide more insight into the role of
anthropogenic cirrus formation through air traffic, by investigating the
high-density European airspace over a period spanning several recent years
including the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (2015-2020). Several data
resources are combined, exploiting the strengths of each product within an
all-encompassing framework on a high spatio-temporal resolution. Data from
METEOSAT SEVIRI have been combined and validated with CALIPSO's CALIOP data to
deduce temporal cirrus cloud cover variability over a rectangular region bound
by (10 degrees W - 35 degrees N) and (40 degrees E - 60 degrees N). Cirrus
clouds are correlated with air traffic. Meteorology was incorporated into the
analysis as it is of major influence on the formation and lifetime of cirrus.
Both a logistic regression model and a Random Forest model were built to assess
cirrus cloud cover variability imposed by meteorology. The impact of aviation
on cirrus cover in 1) super-saturated an 2) sub-saturated air have been
evaluated separately. A description of all the datasets involved, including the
main research methodology and main results, are presented.
