Impact of aircraft NOx emissions on the atmosphere ? tradeoffs to reduce the impact
Résumé
In a reference case including both civil and military aircraft the model predicts aircraft-induced maximum increases of zonal-mean NOy (=total reactive nitrogen) between 156 pptv (August) and 322 pptv (May) in the tropopause region of the Northern Hemisphere. Resulting maximum increases in zonal-mean ozone vary between 3.1 ppbv in September and 7.7 ppbv in June.
Enhanced use of polar routes implies substantially larger zonal-mean ozone increases in high Northern latitudes during summer, while the effect is negligible in winter.
Lowering the flight altitude leads to smaller ozone increases in the lower stratosphere and upper troposphere, and to larger ozone increases at altitudes below. Regarding total ozone change, the degree of cancellation between these two effects depends on latitude and season, but annually and globally averaged the contribution from higher altitudes dominates, mainly due to washout of NOy in the troposphere, which weakens the tropospheric increase.
Raising flight altitudes increases the ozone burden both in the troposphere and the lower stratosphere, primarily due to a more efficient accumulation of pollutants in the stratosphere.