Project 12 - Climate

The direct impact of aviation on climate via the emission of greenhouse gases and particles is small relative to other anthropogenic sources. However, the potential impact of aviation on climate is unique because aviation associated sources occur at high altitudes where other anthropogenic sources are absent, and aircraft are the only major source of emissions above the Arctic Circle. The climatic and chemical impact of aviation emissions and the resulting contrails and contrail-enhanced cirrus in the troposphere and stratosphere may be significant. There are large uncertainties in relating aviation emissions to changes in radiative forcing or surface temperature, especially for contrail-associated pathways. The research seeks to find robust relationships between aircraft emissions and the properties of contrails generated by aircraft under a variety of atmospheric conditions using both a high-resolution large-eddy simulation model and telescoping global-regional climate model.

• Record URL:
  http://partner.mit.edu/projects/emissions-atmospheric-impacts
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Program Information: Energy and Environment, Aviation Emissions. Additional grant numbers: 1393775, 11475804

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $805000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  Grant 10898870

  Grant 11091260

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration

  800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20591
• Project Managers:

  Hileman, James

  Maurice, Lourdes

• Performing Organizations:

  Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

  Cambridge, MA  United States  02142

  Stanford University

  450 Serra Mall
  Stanford, CA  United States  94305
• Principal Investigators:

  Reherman, Clay

  Waltz, Ian

• Start Date: 20130626
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 34527

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft exhaust gases; Climate; Environmental impacts; Greenhouse gases; Pollutants
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Environment; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01572500
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: Grant 10898870, Grant 11091260
• Files: RIP
• Created Date: Aug 8 2015 1:01AM