The latest episode of “成长的影响” features a team of researchers that is exploring how to mitigate aviation’s climate impacts, specifically the warming effect created by contrails.
宾州大学公园. - - - latest episode of “成长的影响” features a team of researchers that is exploring how to mitigate aviation’s climate impacts, specifically the warming effect created by contrails. As the number of airline passengers is anticipated to grow significantly in the coming years, there is a concern about the increasing impact of contrails on climate change, 说 施密茨斯文波音/A. D. Welliver Professor of Aerospace Engineering.
“You can broadly categorize aviation's climate impact into CO2 (carbon dioxide) 和 non-CO2,施密茨说. “The CO2 climate impact is driven by fuel burn. The primary non-CO2 effect is contrails, which is warming caused by the creation of artificial 卷云. This impact is one that many in the public may not be aware of.”
Contrails are the cloud-like streaks left in the sky by jets 和 are the effect of water vapor condensing around soot 和 dust in the atmosphere, 施密茨解释说. Their behavior mimic 卷云, including their proclivity to allow solar radiation to reach the Earth’s surface 和 trap that energy once it has entered the atmosphere.
“Model studies 和 observational studies have suggested that, if climate change involves increases in upper-level, 卷云, that has the potential to amplify greenhouse gas warming,” 安德鲁·卡尔顿, professor emeritus of geography. “It makes it worse by letting solar radiation pass through during the daytime, but also having the heat-trapping effect.”
The team’s project looks to produce data on contrail formation in the jet engine exhausts of current 和 anticipated future-concept aircraft. The team also hopes to use satellite imagery to predict the impact of contrails.
“Now that we know how we can detect clouds, we need to think about how we can build a system that can do this at scale, basically over the entire planet every few minutes,” 圭多Cervone地理学教授. “另外, how can we link the environmental data that are detected from airplanes with the formation or not of contrails that we detect from satellites?”
最后, the team is interested in generating new engine 和 aircraft concepts 和 conducting life-cycle analyses of the potential impact of future aviation technologies towards more sustainable 和 energy-efficient aviation.
"The aviation industry is producing solutions,” Burcu奥兹登, assistant professor at 宾州州立大学阿宾顿分校. “This might be a new fuel or new engines that might reduce contrails, but there has not been a study or investigation on the sustainability of these solutions.”
“成长的影响” is a podcast by the Institute of Energy 和 the Environment (IEE). It features Penn State researchers who have been awarded IEE seed grants 和 discusses their foundational work as they further their projects. The podcast is available on multiple platforms, including 苹果, 谷歌, 亚马逊 和 Spotify.
