Abstract
Abstract. Utilizing an aircraft-specific parameterization based on smog chamber data in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with the volatility basis set (VBS), we estimated contributions of non-traditional secondary organic aerosols (NTSOA) for aircraft emissions during landing and takeoff (LTO) activities at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. NTSOA, formed from the oxidation of semi-volatile and intermediate volatility organic compounds (S/IVOCs), is a heretofore unaccounted component of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in most air quality models. We expanded a prerelease version of CMAQ with VBS implemented for the Carbon Bond 2005 (CB05) chemical mechanism to use the Statewide Air Pollution Research Center 2007 (SAPRC-07) chemical mechanism and added species representing aircraft S/IVOCs and corresponding NTSOA oxidation products. Results indicated that the maximum monthly average NTSOA contributions occurred at the airport and ranged from 2.4 ng m−3 (34 % from idle and 66 % from non-idle aircraft activities) in January to 9.1 ng m−3 (33 and 67 %) in July. This represents 1.7 % (of 140 ng m−3) in January and 7.4 % in July (of 122 ng m−3) of aircraft-attributable PM2.5 compared to 41.0–42.0 % from elemental carbon and 42.8–58.0 % from inorganic aerosols. As a percentage of PM2.5, impacts were higher downwind of the airport, where NTSOA averaged 4.6–17.9 % of aircraft-attributable PM2.5 and, considering alternative aging schemes, was as high as 24.0 % – thus indicating the increased contribution of aircraft-attributable SOA as a component of PM2.5. However, NTSOA contributions were generally low compared to smog chamber results, particularly at idle, due to the considerably lower ambient organic aerosol concentrations in CMAQ compared to those in the smog chamber experiments.
Highlights
Aircraft engines emit multiple pollutants during their various modes of activity from landing and takeoff (LTO) as well as from cruise which negatively impact air quality (Moussiopoulos et al, 1997; Brasseur et al, 1998; Tarrasón et al, 2004; Unal et al, 2005; Schürmann et al, 2007; Yim et al, 2013)
Added non-traditional secondary organic aerosols (NTSOA) formed from aircraft semi-volatile and intermediate volatility organic compounds (S/IVOCs) emissions accounted for 2.4 ng m−3 in January (1.7 % of total PM2.5 from aircraft; daily averages of 0.2– 9 ng m−3) and 9.1 ng m−3 in July (7.4 %, daily averages of 1–38 ng m−3), which is approximately 4–6 times higher than TSOA formed from idle and non-idle aircraft TSOA precursor emissions (Sect. 3.2)
An aircraft-specific parameterization of NTSOA formed from S/IVOC emissions from aircraft engines and based on smog chamber data was successfully incorporated into Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) with volatility basis set (VBS) using SAPRC-07 chemical mechanism
Summary
Aircraft engines emit multiple pollutants during their various modes of activity from landing and takeoff (LTO) as well as from cruise which negatively impact air quality (Moussiopoulos et al, 1997; Brasseur et al, 1998; Tarrasón et al, 2004; Unal et al, 2005; Schürmann et al, 2007; Yim et al, 2013). Emissions from commercial aircraft in the USA during the LTO phase have shown to contribute approximately 3.2 ng m−3 to annual average US fine particulate matter (PM2.5), or 0.05 % of total PM2.5 (Woody et al, 2011). Uncertainty associated with the treatment of aircraft emissions in air quality models has led to a wide range of estimated aviationattributable impacts. Air quality model estimates of aviation-attributable premature mortalities range from 620 per year (Jacobson et al, 2013) to as high as 12 600 (Barrett et al, 2010) for full-flight global aircraft emissions and from 75 (Levy et al, 2012) to 210 (Brunelle-Yeung et al, 2014) for LTO emissions in the USA.
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