A simple framework for assessing the trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight
Persistent contrails are an important climate impact of aviation which could potentially be reduced by re-routing aircraft to avoid contrailing; however this generally increases both the flight length and its corresponding CO $_{2}$ emissions. Here, we provide a simple framework to assess the trade-...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2014-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/064021 |
| _version_ | 1797747987931201536 |
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| author | E A Irvine B J Hoskins K P Shine |
| author_facet | E A Irvine B J Hoskins K P Shine |
| author_sort | E A Irvine |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Persistent contrails are an important climate impact of aviation which could potentially be reduced by re-routing aircraft to avoid contrailing; however this generally increases both the flight length and its corresponding CO $_{2}$ emissions. Here, we provide a simple framework to assess the trade-off between the climate impact of CO $_{2}$ emissions and contrails for a single flight, in terms of the absolute global warming potential and absolute global temperature potential metrics for time horizons of 20, 50 and 100 years. We use the framework to illustrate the maximum extra distance (with no altitude changes) that can be added to a flight and still reduce its overall climate impact. Small aircraft can fly up to four times further to avoid contrailing than large aircraft. The results have a strong dependence on the applied metric and time horizon. Applying a conservative estimate of the uncertainty in the contrail radiative forcing and climate efficacy leads to a factor of 20 difference in the maximum extra distance that could be flown to avoid a contrail. The impact of re-routing on other climatically-important aviation emissions could also be considered in this framework. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:58:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4e1888c6d272453e8bcca90f33dce285 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:58:29Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-4e1888c6d272453e8bcca90f33dce2852023-08-09T14:43:35ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262014-01-019606402110.1088/1748-9326/9/6/064021A simple framework for assessing the trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flightE A Irvine0B J Hoskins1K P Shine2Department of Meteorology, University of Reading , Reading, UKDepartment of Meteorology, University of Reading , Reading, UK; Grantham Institute for Climate Change , Imperial College London, London, UKDepartment of Meteorology, University of Reading , Reading, UKPersistent contrails are an important climate impact of aviation which could potentially be reduced by re-routing aircraft to avoid contrailing; however this generally increases both the flight length and its corresponding CO $_{2}$ emissions. Here, we provide a simple framework to assess the trade-off between the climate impact of CO $_{2}$ emissions and contrails for a single flight, in terms of the absolute global warming potential and absolute global temperature potential metrics for time horizons of 20, 50 and 100 years. We use the framework to illustrate the maximum extra distance (with no altitude changes) that can be added to a flight and still reduce its overall climate impact. Small aircraft can fly up to four times further to avoid contrailing than large aircraft. The results have a strong dependence on the applied metric and time horizon. Applying a conservative estimate of the uncertainty in the contrail radiative forcing and climate efficacy leads to a factor of 20 difference in the maximum extra distance that could be flown to avoid a contrail. The impact of re-routing on other climatically-important aviation emissions could also be considered in this framework.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/064021climate changeroutingradiative forcing |
| spellingShingle | E A Irvine B J Hoskins K P Shine A simple framework for assessing the trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight Environmental Research Letters climate change routing radiative forcing |
| title | A simple framework for assessing the trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight |
| title_full | A simple framework for assessing the trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight |
| title_fullStr | A simple framework for assessing the trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight |
| title_full_unstemmed | A simple framework for assessing the trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight |
| title_short | A simple framework for assessing the trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight |
| title_sort | simple framework for assessing the trade off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight |
| topic | climate change routing radiative forcing |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/064021 |
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