Subsonic aircraft and ozone trends

Abstract

Growth in subsonic air traffic over the past 20 years has been dramatic, with an annual increase of }6.1% over the decade between 1978 and 1988. Furthermore, aircraft activities in the year 2000 are predicted to be double those of 1990, with a shift towards more high-flying, longhaul subsonics. Aircraft exhaust gases increase the amount of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere through injection at cruise altitudes. Given that NO x is instrumental in tropospheric ozone production and stratospheric ozone destruction, it is important to determine the influence of subsonic aircraft NO x emissions on levels of atmospheric ozone. This paper describes calculations designed to investigate the impact that subsonic aircraft may already have had on the atmosphere during the 1980s, run in a 2-D chemical-radiative-transport model. The results indicate a significant increase in upper tropospheric ozone over the decade arising from aircraft emissions. However, when comparing model results with observational data, certain discrepancies appear. Lower stratospheric ozone loss over the 1980s does not appear to be greatly altered by the inclusion of aircraft emissions in the model. However, given the trend in greater numbers of long-haul subsonic aircraft, this factor must be considered in any further calculations.