Abstract Contrail cirrus account for the major share of aviation’s climate impact. Yet, the links between jet fuel composition, contrail microphysics and climate impact remain unresolved. Here we present unique observations from two DLR-NASA aircraft campaigns that measured exhaust and contrail characteristics of an Airbus A320 burning either standard jet fuels or low aromatic sustainable aviation fuel blends. Our results show that soot particles can regulate the number of contrail cirrus ice crystals for current emission levels. We provide experimental evidence that burning low aromatic sustainable aviation fuel can result in a 50 to 70% reduction in soot and ice number concentrations and an increase in ice crystal size. Reduced contrail ice numbers cause less energy deposition in the atmosphere and less warming. Meaningful reductions in aviation’s climate impact could therefore be obtained from the widespread adoptation of low aromatic fuels, and from regulations to lower the maximum aromatic fuel content.
Abstract. Mean properties of individual contrails are characterized for a wide range of jet aircraft as a function of age during their lifecycle from seconds to 11.5 hours (7.4 to 18.7 km altitude, −88 °C to −31 °C ambient temperature), based on a compilation of about 230 previous in-situ and remote sensing measurements. The airborne, satellite, and ground-based observations encompass exhaust contrails from jet aircraft since 1972, and a few older data for propeller aircraft. The contrails are characterized by mean ice particle sizes and concentrations, extinction, ice water content, optical depth, geometrical depth, and contrail width. Integral contrail properties include the cross-section area and total number of ice particles, total ice water content, and total extinction (area-integral of extinction) per contrail length. When known, the contrail-causing aircraft and ambient conditions are characterized. The individual datasets are briefly described, including a few new analyses performed for this study, and compiled together to form a "contrail library" (COLI). The data are compared with results of the Contrail Cirrus Prediction model CoCiP. The observations confirm that the number of ice particles in contrails is controlled by the engine exhaust and the formation process in the jet phase, with some particle losses in the wake vortex phase, followed later by weak decreases with time. Contrail cross-sections grow more quickly than expected from exhaust dilution. The cross-section integrated extinction follows an algebraic approximation. The ratio of volume to effective mean radius decreases with time. The ice water content increases with increasing temperature, similar to non-contrail cirrus, while the equivalent relative humidity over ice saturation of the contrail ice mass increases at lower temperatures in the data. Several contrails were observed in warm air above the Schmidt–Appleman threshold temperature. The “emission index” of ice particles, i.e. the number of ice particles formed in the young contrail per burnt fuel mass, is estimated from the measured concentrations for estimated dilution; maximum values exceed 1015 kg−1. The dependence of the data on the observation methods is discussed. We find no obvious indication for significant contributions from spurious particles resulting from shattering of ice crystals on the microphysical probes.
Abstract. Reflection of solar radiation by tropical low-level clouds has an important cooling effect on climate and leads to decreases in surface temperatures. Still, the effect of pollution on ubiquitous tropical continental low-level clouds and the investigation of the related impact on atmospheric cooling rates are poorly constrained by in-situ observations and modelling, in particular during the West African summer monsoon season. Here, we present comprehensive in-situ measurements of microphysical properties of low-level clouds over tropical West Africa, measured with the DLR aircraft Falcon 20 during the DACCIWA (Dynamics–Aerosol–Chemistry–Cloud Interactions in West Africa) campaign in June and July 2016. Clouds below 1800 meter altitude, identified as boundary layer clouds, were classified according to their carbon monoxide (CO) pollution level into pristine and less polluted clouds (CO < 135 ppbv) and polluted low-level clouds (CO > 155 ppbv) as confirmed by the linear CO to accumulation aerosol correlation. Whereas slightly enhanced aerosol background levels from biomass burning were measured across the entire area, clouds with substantially enhanced aerosol levels were measured in the outflow of major coastal cities, as well as over rural conurbations in the hinterlands. Here we investigate the impact of pollution on cloud droplet number concentration and size during the West African Monsoon season. Our results show that the cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) measured in the size range from 3 µm to 50 µm around noon increases by 35 % in the elevated aerosol outflow of coastal cities and conurbations with elevated aerosol loadings from median CDNC of 240 cm-3 (52 cm-3 to 501 cm-3 interquartile range to 324 cm-3 (60 cm-3 to 740 cm-3 interquartile range). Higher CDNC resulted in a 17 % decrease in effective cloud droplet diameter from a median deff of 14.8 µm to a deff of 12.4 µm in polluted clouds. Radiative transfer simulations show a non-negligible influence of droplet number concentrations and particle sizes on the net radiative forcing at the top of atmosphere of -16.3 W m-2 of the polluted with respect to the less polluted clouds and lead to a change in instantaneous heating rates of -18 K day-1 at top of the clouds at noon. It was found that the net radiative forcing at top of atmosphere accounts for only 2.6 % of the net forcing of the cloud-free reference case. Thus, polluted low-level clouds add only a relatively small contribution on top of the already exerted cooling by low-level clouds in view of a background atmosphere with elevated aerosol loading. Additionally, the occurrence of mid- and high-level cloud layers atop buffer this effect further, so that the net radiative forcing and instantaneous heating rate of low-level clouds turn out to be less sensitive towards projected future increases in anthropogenic pollution in West Africa.
Abstract. We present a case study of Aitken and accumulation mode aerosol observed downwind of the anvils of deep tropical thunderstorms. The measurements were made by condensation nuclei counters flown on the Egrett high-altitude aircraft from Darwin during the ACTIVE campaign, in monsoon conditions producing widespread convection over land and ocean. Maximum measured concentrations of aerosol in the size range 10–100 nm were 25 000 cm−3 STP. By calculating back-trajectories from the observations, and projecting on to infrared satellite images, the time since the air exited cloud was estimated. In this way a time scale of ~ 3–4 h was derived for the 10–100 nm aerosol concentration to reach its peak. We examine the hypothesis that the growth in aerosol concentrations can be explained by production of sulphuric acid from SO2 followed by particle nucleation and coagulation. Estimates of the sulphuric acid production rate show that the observations are only consistent with this hypothesis if the particles coagulate to sizes > 10 nm much more quickly than is suggested by current theory. Alternatively, other condensible gases (possibly organic) drive the growth of aerosol particles in the TTL.
During the AMMA2006 campaign, aircraft measurements often revealed the presence of polluted air masses with the chemical characteristics of biomass burning plumes in the free troposphere and in the upper troposphere over the Gulf of Guinea. The analyses carried out within the AMMA project suggest that the main emission region is central Africa during the south hemisphere dry season. This study shows the importance of convective uplift by large mesoscale convective systems for the transport of southern biomass burning emissions into the upper troposphere over West Africa. Such a mechanism allows rapid transport of pollutants up to 14 km where they are transported westward by the tropical easterly jet. The latitudinal distribution of the biomass burning plume and its content in CO, CO2 and O3 is determined with observations onboard three aircrafts (D-F20, BAE-146, M55-Geophysica) for a case study during the Monsoon season in 2006 and increased
concentrations are found south of 8°N below 600 hPa and around of 5°N at 200 hPa. An analysis of the origin of the air masses sampled during the AMMA campaign and the transport pathways was carried out using the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART and the mesoscale meteorological model BOLAM. The mesoscale model was nudged with cloud top brightness temperatures derived from Meteosat measurements in order to accurately reproduce the position and the life cycle of convective systems over central and western Africa.
Abstract. Air traffic affects cloudiness, and thus climate, by emitting exhaust gases and particles. The study of the evolution of contrail properties is very challenging due to the complex interplay of vortex dynamics and the atmospheric environment (e.g. temperature, supersaturation). Despite substantial progress in recent years, the optical, microphysical, and macrophysical properties of contrails and ambient cirrus during contrail formation and subsequent ageing are still subject to large uncertainties due to instrumental and observational limitations and the large number of variables influencing the contrail life cycle. In this study, various contrail cases corresponding to different aircraft types and atmospheric conditions are investigated using a statistical method based on the in situ optical measurements performed during the Contrail and Cirrus Experiments (CONCERT) campaigns 2008 and 2011. The two aircraft campaigns encompass more than 17 aircraft contrail cases. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the angular scattering coefficients measured by the polar nephelometer is implemented. The goal is to classify the sampled ice cloud measurements in several clusters representative of different contrail development stages (primary wake, young contrail, aged contrail, and cirrus). Extinction and asymmetry coefficients, nitrogen oxide concentrations, and relative humidity with respect to ice and particle size distributions are analysed for each cluster to characterize the evolution of ice cloud properties during the contrail to cirrus evolution. The PCA demonstrates that contrail optical properties are well suited to identify and discriminate between the different contrail growth stages and to characterize the evolution of contrail properties.
Abstract. Airborne measurements of trace gases and aerosol particles have been made in two aged biomass burning (BB) plumes over the East Atlantic (Gulf of Guinea). The plumes originated from BB in the Southern-Hemisphere African savanna belt. On the day of our measurements (13 August 2006), the plumes had ages of about 10 days and were respectively located in the middle troposphere (MT) at 3900–5500 m altitude and in the upper troposphere (UT) at 10 800–11 200 m. Probably, the MT plume was lifted by dry convection and the UT plume was lifted by wet convection. In the more polluted MT-plume, numerous measured trace species had markedly elevated abundances, particularly SO2 (up to 1400 pmol mol−1), HNO3 (5000–8000 pmol mol−1) and smoke particles with diameters larger than 270 nm (up to 2000 cm−3). Our MT-plume measurements indicate that SO2 released by BB had not experienced significant loss by deposition and cloud processes but rather had experienced OH-induced conversion to gas-phase sulfuric acid. By contrast, a significant fraction of the released NOy had experienced loss, most likely as HNO3 by deposition. In the UT-plume, loss of NOy and SO2 was more pronounced compared to the MT-plume, probably due to cloud processes. Building on our measurements and accompanying model simulations, we have investigated trace gas transformations in the ageing and diluting plumes and their role in smoke particle processing and activation. Emphasis was placed upon the formation of sulfuric acid and ammonium nitrate, and their influence on the activation potential of smoke particles. Our model simulations reveal that, after 13 August, the lower plume traveled across the Atlantic and descended to 1300 m and hereafter ascended again. During the travel across the Atlantic, the soluble mass fraction of smoke particles and their mean diameter increased sufficiently to allow the processed smoke particles to act as water vapor condensation nuclei already at very low water vapor supersaturations of only about 0.04%. Thereby, aged smoke particles had developed a potential to act as water vapor condensation nuclei in the formation of maritime clouds.
In the course of the Commissions of the European Communities project “Pollution From Aircraft Emissions in the North Atlantic Flight Corridor (POLINAT)”, in situ measurements of NO, NO x , and CO 2 volume mixing ratios in the near‐field exhaust plumes of seven subsonic long‐range jet aircraft have been carried out by using the research aircraft Falcon of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft‐ und Raumfahrt (DLR). For three additional aircraft, only NO and CO 2 were measured. Plume ages of 50 s to 150 s have been covered, with maximum observed exhaust gas enhancements of 319 parts per billion by volume and 51 parts per million by volume for Δ[NO x ] and Δ[CO 2 ], respectively, in relation to ambient values. Aircraft cruising altitudes and Mach numbers ranged from 9.1 to 11.3 km and from 0.77 to 0.85, respectively. These measurements are used to derive NO x emission indices for seven of the individual aircraft/engine combinations. The NO x emission indices derived range from 12.3 g/kg to 30.4 g/kg. They are compared with predicted emission index values, calculated for the same aircraft engine and the actual conditions by using two newly developed fuel flow correlation methods. The calculated emission indices were mostly within or close to the error limits of the measured values. On average, the predictions from both methods were 12% lower than the measured values, with an observed maximum deviation of 25%. The ratio γ=[NO 2 ]/[NO x ] found during the present measurements ranged from 0.06 to 0.11 for five daytime cases and was around 0.22 for two nighttime cases. By use of a simple box model of the plume chemistry and dilution these data were used to estimate the initial value γ0 present at the engine exit plane. We found γ0 values between 0 and 0.15. These were applied to estimate the corresponding NO 2 for the three cases in which only NO was measured.
