Studying the Effects of Aircraft Exhaust on Global and Regional 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: Centers of Excellence, Aircraft Noise and Aviation Emissions Mitigation. Additional contract number: 10-C-NE-SU-004, 09-C-NE-SU-008.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $875000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  09-C-NE-SU-001

  10-C-NE-SU-003

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration

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

  Halthore, Rangasayi

  Gupta, Mohan

• Performing Organizations:

  Stanford University

  320 Panama Street
  Stanford, CA  United States  94305
• Principal Investigators:

  Jacobson, Mark

  Jacobson, T

• Start Date: 20080728
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20140930
• Source Data: RiP Project 30400

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft exhaust gases; Climate change; Environmental impacts; Global warming; Greenhouse gases; Pollutants; Regional analysis
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Environment; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01570713
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 09-C-NE-SU-001, 10-C-NE-SU-003
• Files: RIP
• Created Date: Jul 25 2015 1:00AM