scholarly journals Climate Impact Mitigation Potential of European Air Traffic in a Weather Situation with Strong Contrail Formation

Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Benjamin Lührs ◽  
Florian Linke ◽  
Sigrun Matthes ◽  
Volker Grewe ◽  
Feijia Yin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Trajectory Optimization ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Aviation Industry ◽  
Impact Mitigation ◽  
Impact Reduction ◽  
Fuel Burn ◽  
Weather Situation

Air traffic contributes to anthropogenic global warming by about 5% due to CO2 emissions and non-CO2 effects, which are primarily caused by the emission of NOx and water vapor as well as the formation of contrails. Since—in the long term—the aviation industry is expected to maintain its trend to grow, mitigation measures are required to counteract its negative effects upon the environment. One of the promising operational mitigation measures that has been a subject of the EU project ATM4E is climate-optimized flight planning by considering algorithmic climate change functions that allow for the quantification of aviation-induced climate impact based on the emission’s location and time. Here, we describe the methodology developed for the use of algorithmic climate change functions in trajectory optimization and present the results of its application to the planning of about 13,000 intra-European flights on one specific day with strong contrail formation over Europe. The optimization problem is formulated as bi-objective continuous optimal control problem with climate impact and fuel burn being the two objectives. Results on an individual flight basis indicate that there are three major classes of different routes that are characterized by different shapes of the corresponding Pareto fronts representing the relationship between climate impact reduction and fuel burn increase. On average, for the investigated weather situation and traffic scenario, a climate impact reduction in the order of 50% can be achieved by accepting 0.75% of additional fuel burn. Higher mitigation gains would only be available at much higher fuel penalties, e.g., a climate impact reduction of 76% associated with a fuel penalty of 12.8%. However, these solutions represent much less efficient climate impact mitigation options.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Climate Impact Reduction Potential of the Water-Enhanced Turbofan (WET) Concept

Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Regina Pouzolz ◽  
Oliver Schmitz ◽  
Hermann Klingels
Keyword(s):  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Aircraft Engine ◽  
Steam Injection ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Formation Mechanisms ◽  
Water Recovery ◽  
Impact Reduction ◽  
Fuel Burn ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Reduction Of Co2

Aviation faces increasing pressure not only to reduce fuel burn, and; therefore, CO2 emissions, but also to provide technical solutions for an overall climate impact minimization. To combine both, a concept for the enhancement of an aircraft engine by steam injection with inflight water recovery is being developed. The so-called Water-Enhanced Turbofan (WET) concept promises a significant reduction of CO2 emissions, NOx emissions, and contrail formation. Representative missions for an A320-type aircraft using the proposed new engine were calculated. Applying a first-order one-dimensional climate assessment prospects the reduction of more than half of the Global Warming Potential over one hundred years, compared to an evolutionarily improved aero-engine. If CO2-neutrally produced sustainable aviation fuels are used, climate impact could be reduced by 93% compared to today’s aircraft. The evaluation is a first estimate of effects based on preliminary design studies and should provide a starting point for discussion in the scientific community, implying the need for research, especially on the formation mechanisms and radiation properties of potential contrails from the comparatively cold exhaust gases of the WET engine.

scholarly journals A Holistic and Interoperable Approach towards the Implementation of Services for the Digital Transformation of Smart Cities: The Case of Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (23) ◽  
pp. 8061
Author(s):  
Félix Larrinaga ◽  
Alain Pérez ◽  
Iñigo Aldalur ◽  
José L. Hernández ◽  
José Luis Izkara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Information Platform ◽  
Impact Reduction ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Cities in the 21st century play a major role in the sustainability and climate impact reduction challenges set by the European agenda. As the population of cities grows and their environmental impact becomes more evident, the European strategy aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—the main cause of climate change. Measures to reduce the impact of climate change include reducing energy consumption, improving mobility, harnessing resources and renewable energies, integrating nature-based solutions and efficiently managing infrastructure. The monitoring and control of all this activity is essential for its proper functioning. In this context, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a key role in the digitisation, monitoring, and managing of these different verticals. Urban data platforms support cities on extracting Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in their efforts to make better decisions. Cities must be transformed by applying efficient urban planning measures and taking into account not only technological aspects, but also by applying a holistic vision in building solutions where citizens are at the centre. In addition, standardisation of platforms where applications are integrated as one is necessary. This requires interoperability between different verticals. This article presents the information platform developed for the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain. The platform is based on the UNE 178104 standard to provide a holistic architecture that integrates information from the different urban planning measures implemented in the city. The platform was constructed in the context of the SmartEnCity project following the urban transformation strategy established by the city. The article presents the value-added solutions implemented in the platform. These solutions have been developed by applying co-creation techniques in which stakeholders have been involved throughout the process. The platform proposes a step forward towards standardization, harmonises the integration of data from multiple vertical, provides interoperability between services, and simplifies scalability and replicability due to its microservice architecture.

scholarly journals Contrail cirrus radiative forcing for future air traffic

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 8163-8174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Bock ◽  
Ulrike Burkhardt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Traffic Volume ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Strong Increase ◽  
Emission Reductions ◽  
Propulsion Efficiency ◽  
Soot Emissions

Abstract. The climate impact of air traffic is to a large degree caused by changes in cirrus cloudiness resulting from the formation of contrails. Contrail cirrus radiative forcing is expected to increase significantly over time due to the large projected increases in air traffic. We use ECHAM5-CCMod, an atmospheric climate model with an online contrail cirrus parameterization including a microphysical two-moment scheme, to investigate the climate impact of contrail cirrus for the year 2050. We take into account the predicted increase in air traffic volume, changes in propulsion efficiency and emissions, in particular soot emissions, and the modification of the contrail cirrus climate impact due to anthropogenic climate change. Global contrail cirrus radiative forcing increases by a factor of 3 from 2006 to 2050, reaching 160 or even 180 mW m−2, which is the result of the increase in air traffic volume and a slight shift in air traffic towards higher altitudes. Large increases in contrail cirrus radiative forcing are expected over all of the main air traffic areas, but relative increases are largest over main air traffic areas over eastern Asia. The projected upward shift in air traffic attenuates contrail cirrus radiative forcing increases in the midlatitudes but reinforces it in the tropical areas. Climate change has an insignificant impact on global contrail cirrus radiative forcing, while regional changes are significant. Of the emission reductions it is the soot number emission reductions by 50 % that lead to a significant decrease in contrail cirrus optical depth and coverage, leading to a decrease in radiative forcing by approximately 15 %. The strong increase in contrail cirrus radiative forcing due to the projected increase in air traffic volume cannot be compensated for by the decrease in initial ice crystal numbers due to reduced soot emissions and improvements in propulsion efficiency.

scholarly journals Assessment of Socio-Economic and Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources in Four European Lagoon Catchments

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 701-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastassi Stefanova ◽  
Cornelia Hesse ◽  
Valentina Krysanova ◽  
Martin Volk
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Coastal Zone Management ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Vistula Lagoon ◽  
Ria De Aveiro ◽  
Mar Menor

Abstract This study demonstrates the importance of considering potential land use and management changes in climate impact research. By taking into account possible trends of economic development and environmental awareness, we assess effects of global warming on water availability and quality in the catchments of four European lagoons: Ria de Aveiro (Portugal), Mar Menor (Spain), Vistula Lagoon (Poland and Russia), and Tyligulskyi Liman (Ukraine). Different setups of the process-based soil and water integrated model (SWIM), representing one reference and four socio-economic scenarios for each study area: the “business as usual”, “crisis”, “managed horizons”, and “set-aside” scenarios are driven by sets of 15 climate scenarios for a reference (1971–2000) and near future (2011–2040) scenario period. Modeling results suggest a large spatial variability of potential impacts across the study areas, due to differences in the projected precipitation trends and the current environmental and socio-economic conditions. While climate change may reduce water and nutrients input to the Ria de Aveiro and Tyligulsyi Liman and increase water inflow to the Vistula Lagoon the socio-economic scenarios and their implications may balance out or reverse these trends. In the intensely managed Mar Menor catchment, climate change has no notable direct impact on water resources, but changes in land use and water management may certainly aggravate the current environmental problems. The great heterogeneity among results does not allow formulating adaptation or mitigation measures at pan-European level, as initially intended by this study. It rather implies the need of a regional approach in coastal zone management.

scholarly journals Influence of the actual weather situation on non-CO<sub>2</sub> aviation climate effects: The REACT4C Climate Change Functions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Frömming ◽  
Volker Grewe ◽  
Sabine Brinkop ◽  
Patrick Jöckel ◽  
Amund S. Haslerud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Flight Trajectory ◽  
Atlantic Region ◽  
The North ◽  
Weather Situation ◽  
Aviation Emissions ◽  
Aircraft Trajectories ◽  
Local Emissions

Abstract. Emissions of aviation include CO2, H2O, NOx, sulfur oxides and soot. Many studies have investigated the annual mean climate impact of aviation emissions. While CO2 has a long atmospheric residence time and is almost uniformly distributed in the atmosphere, non-CO2 gases, particles and their products have short atmospheric residence times and are heterogeneously distributed. The climate impact of non-CO2 aviation emissions is known to vary with different meteorological background situations. The aim of this study is to systematically investigate the influence of different weather situations on aviation climate effects over the North Atlantic region, to identify the most sensitive areas and potentially detect systematic weather related similarities. If aircraft were re-routed to avoid climate-sensitive regions, the overall aviation climate Impact might be reduced. Hence, the sensitivity of the atmosphere to local emissions provides a basis for the assessment of weather related, climate optimized flight trajectory planning. To determine the climate change contribution of an individual Emission as function of location, time and weather situation, the radiative impact of local emissions of NOx and H2O to changes in O3, CH4, H2O and contrail-cirrus was computed by means of the ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry model. 4-dimensional climate change functions (CCFs) were derived thereof. Typical weather situations in the North Atlantic region were considered for winter and summer. Weather related differences in O3-, CH4-, H2O-, and contrail-cirrus-CCFs were investigated. The following characteristics were identified: Enhanced climate impact of contrail-cirrus was detected for emissions in areas with large scale lifting, whereas low climate impact of contrail-cirrus was found in the area of the jet stream. Northwards of 60° N contrails usually cause climate warming in winter, independent of the weather situation. NOx emissions cause a high positive climate impact if released in the area of the jet stream or in high pressure ridges, which induces a south- and downward transport of the emitted species. Whereas NOx emissions at, or transported towards high latitudes, cause low or even negative climate impact. Independent of the weather situation, total NOx effects show a minimum at ∼250 hPa, increasing towards higher and lower altitudes, with generally higher positive impact in summer than in winter. H2O emissions induce a high climate Impact when released in regions with lower tropopause height, whereas low climate impact occurs for emissions in areas with higher tropopause height. H2O-CCFs generally increase with height, and are larger in winter than in summer. The CCFs of all individual species can be combined, facilitating the assessment of total climate impact of aircraft trajectories considering CO2 and spatially and temporally varying non-CO2 effetcs. Furthermore they allow the optimization of aircraft trajectories with reduced overall climate impact. In most regions NOx and contrail-cirrus dominate the sensitivity to local aviation emissions. The findings of this study recommend, to consider weather related differences for flight trajectory optimization in favour of reducing total climate impact.

scholarly journals Identification of air transport ecological component level in the context of ensuring sustainable development of the national economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-53
Author(s):  
Dmytro Bugayko ◽  
Yuri Kharazishvili ◽  
Anna Antonova ◽  
Zenon Zamiar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Aviation Safety ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Air Transport ◽  
Aviation Industry ◽  
Ecological Safety ◽  
Component Level ◽  
2030 Agenda

”. Aviation safety is an important component of the concept of general national security, the system of personal security, ecological and public safety and transport safety from external and internal threats. Maintaining an acceptable level of national aviation safety is a priority for the industry. In the context of globalization, ecological safety is becoming especially important. World leaders gathered at the United Nations (UN) and adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is a plan of action aimed at achieving global sustainable development in economic, social and environmental areas, which ensures that no UN member state is left behind. The 17 sustainable development goals on the 2030 Agenda can be used as benchmarks for the coordinated development of UN member states. One of the most important goals for the global survival of humankind is Goal 13 “Climate Change”. In order to find an adequate answer to this challenge, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has identified the following areas that can contribute to the attainment of the global aspirational goal: aircraft related technology and standards; improved air traffic management and operational improvements, development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuel and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). The implementation of CORSIA is carried out not only at the global level, the initiative requires the search for effective management solutions at the national level. Statistics on the activities of the aviation industry of Ukraine indicate its stable development. However, unfortunately, the dynamic growth of air traffic entails an increase in emissions of chemical elements into the atmosphere, which are a real threat to the environment and can contribute to climate change processes. The main tool for ensuring ecological safety tasks is proactive risk management. The development of proactive tools for environmental risk management is relevant and has practical implications for sustainable development, both in the industry in particular and for the state as a whole. The articles offer the author's approaches to the identification of air transport ecological component level.

scholarly journals Newly developed aircraft routing options for air traffic simulation in the chemistry–climate model EMAC 2.53: AirTraf 2.0

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 4869-4890
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Yamashita ◽  
Feijia Yin ◽  
Volker Grewe ◽  
Patrick Jöckel ◽  
Sigrun Matthes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Minimum Cost ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Operating Costs ◽  
Objective Functions

Abstract. Aviation contributes to climate change, and the climate impact of aviation is expected to increase further. Adaptations of aircraft routings in order to reduce the climate impact are an important climate change mitigation measure. The air traffic simulator AirTraf, as a submodel of the European Center HAMburg general circulation model (ECHAM) and Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model, enables the evaluation of such measures. For the first version of the submodel AirTraf, we concentrated on the general setup of the model, including departure and arrival, performance and emissions, and technical aspects such as the parallelization of the aircraft trajectory calculation with only a limited set of optimization possibilities (time and distance). Here, in the second version of AirTraf, we focus on enlarging the objective functions by seven new options to enable assessing operational improvements in many more aspects including economic costs, contrail occurrence, and climate impact. We verify that the AirTraf setup, e.g., in terms of number and choice of design variables for the genetic algorithm, allows us to find solutions even with highly structured fields such as contrail occurrence. This is shown by example simulations of the new routing options, including around 100 North Atlantic flights of an Airbus A330 aircraft for a typical winter day. The results clearly show that AirTraf 2.0 can find the different families of optimum flight trajectories (three-dimensional) for specific routing options; those trajectories minimize the corresponding objective functions successfully. The minimum cost option lies between the minimum time and the minimum fuel options. Thus, aircraft operating costs are minimized by taking the best compromise between flight time and fuel use. The aircraft routings for contrail avoidance and minimum climate impact reduce the potential climate impact which is estimated by using algorithmic climate change functions, whereas these two routings increase the aircraft operating costs. A trade-off between the aircraft operating costs and the climate impact is confirmed. The simulation results are compared with literature data, and the consistency of the submodel AirTraf 2.0 is verified.

scholarly journals Contrail cirrus radiative forcing for future air traffic

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Bock ◽  
Ulrike Burkhardt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Traffic Volume ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Strong Increase ◽  
Emission Reductions ◽  
Propulsion Efficiency ◽  
Soot Emissions

Abstract. The climate impact of air traffic is to a large degree caused by changes in cirrus cloudiness resulting from the formation of contrails. Contrail cirrus radiative forcing is expected to increase significantly with time due to the large projected increases in air traffic. We use ECHAM5-CCMod, an atmospheric climate model with an online contrail cirrus parameterization including a microphysical two-moment scheme, to investigate the climate impact of contrail cirrus for the year 2050. We take into account the predicted increase in air traffic volume and changes in propulsion efficiency and emissions, in particular soot emissions, and the modification of the contrail cirrus climate impact due to anthropogenic climate change. Contrail cirrus radiative forcing increases by a factor of 3 from 2006 to 2050, resulting from the increase in air traffic volume and a slight shift of air traffic towards higher altitudes. Large increases in contrail cirrus radiative forcing are expected over all of the main air traffic areas but relative increases are largest over South-East Asia/India and Eastern China/Japan. The projected upward shift of air traffic attenuates contrail cirrus radiative forcing increases in the mid-latitudes but reinforces it in the tropical areas. Climate change has an insignificant impact on global contrail cirrus radiative forcing. Of the emission reductions it is the soot number emission reductions by 50 % that lead to a significant decrease in contrail cirrus optical depth and coverage, leading to a decrease in radiative forcing by approximately 15 %. The strong increase in contrail cirrus radiative forcing due to the projected increase in air traffic volume cannot be compensated for by the decrease in initial ice crystal numbers due to reduced soot emissions and by improvements in propulsion efficiency.

scholarly journals Influence of weather situation on non-CO<sub>2</sub> aviation climate effects: the REACT4C climate change functions

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 9151-9172
Author(s):  
Christine Frömming ◽  
Volker Grewe ◽  
Sabine Brinkop ◽  
Patrick Jöckel ◽  
Amund S. Haslerud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Flight Trajectory ◽  
The North ◽  
Weather Situation ◽  
Aviation Emissions ◽  
Aircraft Trajectories ◽  
Local Emissions

Abstract. Emissions of aviation include CO2, H2O, NOx, sulfur oxides, and soot. Many studies have investigated the annual mean climate impact of aviation emissions. While CO2 has a long atmospheric residence time and is almost uniformly distributed in the atmosphere, non-CO2 gases and particles and their products have short atmospheric residence times and are heterogeneously distributed. The climate impact of non-CO2 aviation emissions is known to vary with different meteorological background situations. The aim of this study is to systematically investigate the influence of characteristic weather situations on aviation climate effects over the North Atlantic region, to identify the most sensitive areas, and to potentially detect systematic weather-related similarities. If aircraft were re-routed to avoid climate-sensitive regions, the overall aviation climate impact might be reduced. Hence, the sensitivity of the atmosphere to local emissions provides a basis for the assessment of weather-related, climate-optimized flight trajectory planning. To determine the climate change contribution of an individual emission as a function of location, time, and weather situation, the radiative impact of local emissions of NOx and H2O to changes in O3, CH4, H2O and contrail cirrus was computed by means of the ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry model. From this, 4-dimensional climate change functions (CCFs) were derived. Typical weather situations in the North Atlantic region were considered for winter and summer. Weather-related differences in O3, CH4, H2O, and contrail cirrus CCFs were investigated. The following characteristics were identified: enhanced climate impact of contrail cirrus was detected for emissions in areas with large-scale lifting, whereas low climate impact of contrail cirrus was found in the area of the jet stream. Northwards of 60∘ N, contrails usually cause climate warming in winter, independent of the weather situation. NOx emissions cause a high positive climate impact if released in the area of the jet stream or in high-pressure ridges, which induces a south- and downward transport of the emitted species, whereas NOx emissions at, or transported towards, high latitudes cause low or even negative climate impact. Independent of the weather situation, total NOx effects show a minimum at ∼250 hPa, increasing towards higher and lower altitudes, with generally higher positive impact in summer than in winter. H2O emissions induce a high climate impact when released in regions with lower tropopause height, whereas low climate impact occurs for emissions in areas with higher tropopause height. H2O CCFs generally increase with height and are larger in winter than in summer. The CCFs of all individual species can be combined, facilitating the assessment of total climate impact of aircraft trajectories considering CO2 and spatially and temporally varying non-CO2 effects. Furthermore, they allow for the optimization of aircraft trajectories with reduced overall climate impact. This also facilitates a fair evaluation of trade-offs between individual species. In most regions, NOx and contrail cirrus dominate the sensitivity to local aviation emissions. The findings of this study recommend considering weather-related differences for flight trajectory optimization in favour of reducing total climate impact.

scholarly journals Climate-Optimized Trajectories and Robust Mitigation Potential: Flying ATM4E

Aerospace ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrun Matthes ◽  
Benjamin Lührs ◽  
Katrin Dahlmann ◽  
Volker Grewe ◽  
Florian Linke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Management ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Route Optimization ◽  
Function Concept ◽  
Mitigation Potential ◽  
Impact Reduction ◽  
Co2 Effects ◽  
Weather Situation ◽  
Change Function ◽  
Aircraft Trajectories

Aviation can reduce its climate impact by controlling its CO2-emission and non-CO2 effects, e.g., aviation-induced contrail-cirrus and ozone caused by nitrogen oxide emissions. One option is the implementation of operational measures that aim to avoid those atmospheric regions that are in particular sensitive to non-CO2 aviation effects, e.g., where persistent contrails form. The quantitative estimates of mitigation potentials of such climate-optimized aircraft trajectories are required, when working towards sustainable aviation. The results are presented from a comprehensive modelling approach when aiming to identify such climate-optimized aircraft trajectories. The overall concept relies on a multi-dimensional environmental change function concept, which is capable of providing climate impact information to air traffic management (ATM). Estimates on overall climate impact reduction from a one-day case study are presented that rely on the best estimate for climate impact information. Specific weather situation that day, containing regions with high contrail impact, results in a potential reduction of total climate impact, by more than 40%, when considering CO2 and non-CO2 effects, associated with an increase of fuel by about 0.5%. The climate impact reduction per individual alternative trajectory shows a strong variation and, hence, also the mitigation potential for an analyzed city pair, depending on atmospheric characteristics along the flight corridor as well as flight altitude. The robustness of proposed climate-optimized trajectories is assessed by using a range of different climate metrics. A more sustainable ATM needs to integrate comprehensive environmental impacts and associated forecast uncertainties into route optimization in order to identify robust eco-efficient trajectories.

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