Impact of Aviation on Climate: FAA’s Aviation Climate Change Research Initiative (ACCRI) Phase II
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Under the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aviation Climate Change Research Initiative (ACCRI), non-CO2 climatic impacts of commercial aviation are assessed for current (2006) and for future (2050) baseline and mitigation scenarios. The effects of the non-CO2 aircraft emissions are examined using a number of advanced climate and atmospheric chemistry transport models. Radiative forcing (RF) estimates for individual forcing effects are provided as a range for comparison against those published in the literature. Preliminary results for selected RF components for 2050 scenarios indicate that a 2% increase in fuel efficiency and a decrease in NOx emissions due to advanced aircraft technologies and operational procedures, as well as the introduction of renewable alternative fuels, will significantly decrease future aviation climate impacts. In particular, the use of renewable fuels will further decrease RF associated with sulfate aerosol and black carbon. While this focused ACCRI program effort has yielded significant new knowledge, fundamental uncertainties remain in our understanding of aviation climate impacts. These include several chemical and physical processes associated with NOx–O3–CH4 interactions and the formation of aviation-produced contrails and the effects of aviation soot aerosols on cirrus clouds as well as on deriving a measure of change in temperature from RF for aviation non-CO2 climate impacts—an important metric that informs decision-making.
Authors: Guy P. Brasseur, Mohan Gupta, Bruce E. Anderson, Sathya Balasubramanian, Steven Barrett, David Duda, Gregg Fleming, Piers M. Forster, Jan Fuglestvedt, Andrew Gettelman, Rangasayi N. Halthore, S. Daniel Jacob, Mark Z. Jacobson, Arezoo Khodayari, Kuo-Nan Liou, Marianne T. Lund, Richard C. Miake-Lye, Patrick Minnis, Seth Olsen, Joyce E. Penner, Ronald Prinn, Ulrich Schumann, Henry B. Selkirk, Andrei Sokolov, Nadine Unger, Philip Wolfe, Hsi-Wu Wong, Donald W. Wuebbles, Bingqi Yi, Ping Yang, Cheng Zhou
Institutions: NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Federal Aviation Administration, Langley Research Center, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Leeds, CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Stanford University, University of Massachusetts Lowell, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of California, Los Angeles, Aerodyne Research, University of Michigan, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR), Goddard Space Flight Center, Yale University, California State University Los Angeles, Texas A&M University
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1586138872