Climate Metrics and Aviation: Analysis of Current Understanding and Uncertainties

Details

• Creators:
  Wuebbles, Donald J. ; Yang, Huiguang ; Herman, Redina
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Climate change
  • Aviation
  • Environmental impact analysis
  • Atmosphere
• Publication/ Report Number:
  SSWP No. 8
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration
• Abstract:
  The impact of climate-altering agents on the atmospheric system is a result of a complex system of interactions and feedbacks within the atmosphere, and with the oceans, the land surface, the biosphere and the cryosphere. Climate metrics are used as a proxy to simplify interpretation of the complex science and associated feedbacks to indicate the ultimate effect of constituent changes in the atmosphere. Aviation is just one contributor to these constituent changes in the atmosphere but the potential impact of aviation on climate is expected to grow over the coming decades as demand for air travel increases. It is necessary to quantify the impact of aviation so that appropriate policy actions may be defined. The objective of this report is to examine the capabilities and limitations of current climate metrics in the context of the aviation impact on climate change, to analyze key uncertainties associated with these metrics and, to the extent possible, to make recommendations on future research and about how best to use metrics currently to gauge aviation-induced climate change.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/17381/dot_17381_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 792.93 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Transportation Resilience and Vulnerability Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:2394950d42dc64e2aa54af43b95f1050d40c72d01fe532497e693fc8a3fa28b6