United States Department of Transportation
i
Climate Impact of Contrails and Contrail Cirrus
-
2008-01-25
-
[PDF-368.48 KB]
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:Generally, the climatic impact of air traffic (of which a substantial part may be due to contrails and contrail cirrus) today (year 2000) amounts to 2-8% of the global radiative forcing associated with climate change. Due to the projected increase in air traffic [ICAO, 2007] the relative importance of air traffic is going to increase drastically. In the long term it may well be, that the most serious threat to the continued growth of air travel is its impact on climate [Green, 2005]. In view of the societal relevance and economic importance of sustainable growth of global aviation, it would be appropriate that the climate science community received sufficient funding, allowing significant progress estimating climate impacts, in order to ensure that political decisions are based on increasingly sound scientific knowledge. Aircraft-induced cloudiness, which comprises contrail cirrus and modification of cirrus by aircraft exhaust soot emissions are the most uncertain component in aviation climate impact assessments [IPCC, 2007]. Since they may be the largest component in aviation radiative forcing aircraft-induced cloudiness and contrail cirrus in particular require a large research effort.
-
Format:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
