A multiscale modeling study to assess impacts of full-flight aircraft emissions on upper troposphere and surface air quality

Abstract

Aviation is a unique anthropogenic source with 4-dimensional varying emissions, emitting 90 % of their emissions in upper troposphere at cruise altitudes (9–12 km). Aircraft emissions budgets in upper troposphere lower stratosphere (UTLS) region and their potential impacts on upper troposphere and surface air quality are not well understood. The key objective of this study is to characterize the aircraft emissions during full-flight activity in regional and hemispheric modeling scales, and assess their impacts on upper tropospheric chemistry and surface air quality. Using detailed spatio-temporal characterization of aircraft emissions along with other background emissions in the modeling domains, we studied incremental impacts of aircraft emissions focusing mainly on O3, NOx and PM2.5 species. Comparison of modeling results with aircraft measurements showed improvement of model performance due to enhanced modeling platform and consideration of cruise altitude aviation emissions in the upper troposphere.