Aviation emission, contrail length, and flight level determination for en-route flight path decision

Abstract

The rapid growth of the aviation industry and air travel brought along increased air traffic in the airspace, greater fuel consumption, and more engine emissions. It is estimated that the aviation sector contributes roughly 4.9% of total radiative forcing in Earth’s atmosphere in 2005, with the CO2 and NO emissions expected to rise by a factor of 2.0-3.6 and 1.2-2.7 respectively by 2050 [1] . While the industry is actively trying to mitigate carbon and nitrogen emissions through the introduction of alternative jet fuel and higher efficiency engines, the issue remains that contrails and cirrus clouds created by aircraft emissions in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere remain as the one of the main contributors to climate change. Estimation in 2005 concluded that contrails contributes approximately 6-15 mW m-2 and cirrus clouds contributes between 10-80 mW m-2 towards global radiative forcing [2]. In order to help alleviate climate change, it is proposed with flight path optimization, aircrafts will be able to avoid areas where contrail formations will be the most likely, thus reducing the amount of cirrus clouds within the UT/LS layer.