There is indeed still a lot of research going into the effects of persistent contrails on climate.
During the day they do seem to lead to cooling ( reflecting solar radiation back out to space). But at night and in winter they lead to warming
(reflecting outgoing radiation back down to earth). Current thinking is that the overall net effect is of warming.
Pat Minnis (NASA) believes that all recent warming in N American could be due to contrails (though this conclusion has been disputed)
One thing is for sure: they turn our skies hazy and I don't like them!
There are certainly no benefits. And the only way to stop them (at present) is to stop flying




