Reducing The Climate Change Impact of Aviation By Restricting Cruise Altitudes
Abstract
Aviation has the potential to influence the global climate. The total annual fuel burned by aircraft contributes a small but significant proportion of global anthropogenic car- bon dioxide emissions, with this proportion set to increase with the projected rise in demand for air travel. Additionally, the emission of nitrogen oxides at altitude can have a much greater impact on ozone, and in turn on the atmospheric radiation bud- get, than emission at the surface. A third mechanism for the influence of aviation on climate is through the production of contrails. Contrails cover 0.1
Cruise altitude restrictions could severely constrain air space capacity, especially in parts of Europe. In addition, carbon emissions may increase due to less efficient air- craft operation at lower cruise altitudes, which would offset some of the benefits of eliminating contrail formation. An analysis of these trade-offs is presented, using the RAMS air space simulation model as applied to European airspace. This model sim- ulates the flight paths and altitudes of each aircraft and is here used to calculate emis- sions of carbon dioxide and changes in the journey time. Our analysis demonstrates that altitude restrictions on commercial aircraft could be an effective means of re- ducing climate change impacts, though it will be necessary to mitigate the increased controller workload conflicts that this will generate.- Publication:
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EGS General Assembly Conference Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002EGSGA..27.1331W