In situ observations of particles in jet aircraft exhausts and contrails for different sulfur‐containing fuels

Abstract

The impact of sulfur oxides on particle formation and contrails is investigated in the exhaust plumes of a twin‐engine jet aircraft. Different fuels were used with sulfur mass fractions of 170 and 5500 ppm in the fuel, one lower than average, the other above the specification limit of standard Jet‐Al fuel. During various phases of the same flight, the two engines burnt either high‐ or low‐sulfur fuel or different fuels in the two engines. Besides visual, photographic, and video observations from close distance, in situ measurements were made within the plumes at plume ages of 20 to 30 s, at altitudes between 9 and 9.5 km, and temperatures between −49 and −55°C, when the visible contrail was about 2 km long. The data include particle number densities for particles larger than 7 nm, 18 nm, 120 nm, and 1 μm in diameter, together with wind, temperature and humidity measurements. The observations show visible and measurable differences between contrails caused by the different sulfur levels. At ambient temperatures 5 K below the threshold temperature for contrail onset, the plume became visible about 10 m after the engine exit for high sulfur content, but 15 m after the engine exit for low sulfur content. The higher sulfur emission caused a larger optical thickness of the contrail shortly after onset, with slightly brown‐colored contrail when the Sun was behind the observer, and more contrast when viewed against the Sun. The high‐sulfur contrail grew more quickly but also evaporated earlier than the low‐sulfur contrail. At plume ages of about 20 s, each engine plume was diluted to an effective diameter of 20 m. The plumes contained many subvisible particles. Peak number densities were 30,000 cm−3 for particles of diameter above 7 nm and 15,000 cm−3 above 18 nm. The latter is a little larger than the estimated number of soot particles emitted. The high‐sulfur plume shows more particles than the low‐sulfur plume. The differences are about 25% for particles above 7 nm and about 50% above 18 nm. The results indicate that part of the fuel sulfur is converted to sulfuric acid which nucleates with water vapor heterogeneously on soot or nucleates acid droplets homogeneously which then coagulate partly with soot. During descent through the level of contrail onset, the high‐sulfur contrail remained visible at slightly lower altitude (25 to 50 m) or higher temperature (0.2 to 0.4 K). At least for average to high sulfur contents, aircraft generate an invisible aerosol trail which enhances the background level of condensation nuclei, in particular in regions with dense air traffic at northern latitudes and near the tropopause.