Satellite remote sensing is a powerful tool for studying the global distribution of clouds, cloud types and various cloud properties. Contrails are also a form of clouds and using some innovative techniques we have detected contrails and studied their effects.

Key references
Greenwald, T. J., and S. A. Christopher, The GOES-IM Imagers: New Tools for studying the microphysical properties of boundary layers clouds. Bulletin of Amer. Meteorol. Soc, 81, 2607-2620, 2000