The aviation industry has set an ambitious goal of reducing its climate impacts. Accordingly, airlines must balance their plans according to this goal with financial considerations. We developed a multi-objective framework to facilitate climate-aware network design by incorporating the objective to minimise the flight average temperature response (ATR) when optimising the airline network. We also assessed the operational improvements (OIs) which are introduced to improve sustainability in airline operations. In particular, we considered intermediate stop-overs (ISOs) and lower flight altitudes as OIs in our case studies. We analysed the impact of considering the climate impact in the planning of operations of three different airline types: one main-hub-and-spoke (KLM), one smaller multi-hub airline (TAP), and one low-cost carrier (EasyJet). The results show that airlines could also lower their environmental impact by 10–36% when considering the ATR as an objective. However, this would require an 8–20% reduction in profits. Adopting lower-altitude flying with ISO could mitigate their climate impact by 27–49% while reducing profits by approximately 6%. Our study highlights the importance of considering the airline network as a whole and demonstrates the potential benefits of operational improvements from a network perspective.@en

The climate impact of non-CO2 emissions, which are responsible for two-thirds of aviation radiative forcing, highly depends on the atmospheric chemistry and weather conditions. Hence, by planning aircraft trajectories to reroute areas where the non-CO2 climate impacts are strongly enhanced, called climate-sensitive regions, there is a potential to reduce aviation-induced non-CO2 climate effects. Weather forecast is inevitably uncertain, which can lead to unreliable determination of climate-sensitive regions and aircraft dynamical behavior and, consequently, inefficient trajectories. In this study, we propose robust climate-optimal aircraft trajectory planning within the currently structured airspace considering uncertainties in standard weather forecasts. The ensemble prediction system is employed to characterize uncertainty in the weather forecast, and climate-sensitive regions are quantified using the prototype algorithmic climate change functions. As the optimization problem is constrained by the structure of airspace, it is associated with hybrid decision spaces. To account for discrete and continuous decision variables in an integrated and more efficient manner, the optimization is conducted on the space of probability distributions defined over flight plans instead of directly searching for the optimal profile. A heuristic algorithm based on the augmented random search is employed and implemented on graphics processing units to solve the proposed stochastic optimization computationally fast. An open-source Python library called ROOST (V1.0) is developed based on the aircraft trajectory optimization technique. The effectiveness of our proposed strategy to plan robust climate-optimal trajectories within the structured airspace is analyzed through two scenarios: a scenario with a large contrail climate impact and a scenario with no formation of persistent contrails. It is shown that, for a nighttime flight from Frankfurt to Kyiv, a 55ĝ€¯% reduction in climate impact can be achieved at the expense of a 4ĝ€¯% increase in the operating cost.

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The aircraft’s environmental performance on fleet level is so far completely decoupled from the design process. The climate impact from aviation arising from non-CO2 effects are largely independent from CO2 emissions, but rather depend on the atmospheric state. Previously complex climate-chemistry models were used to evaluate the non-CO2 emissions impact on climate. This is far too computationally demanding for a multidisciplinary design optimisation (MDO) process, requiring a multitude of climate impact evaluations. The question then is, how to efficiently design the next generation climate optimal aircraft? In this paper, a new concept for designing aircraft with minimum climate impact using Climate Functions for Aircraft Design (CFAD) is presented. The content of this paper provides an overview of the development of these innovative CFAD and demonstrates the ability to be integrated in an existing MDO framework. The mitigation potential by optimising aircraft design using CFAD is analysed with respect to different cruise conditions and by minimizing the overall climate impact. To validate the CFAD, a higher fidelity assessment is carried out. Finally, the key performance indicators, i.e. fuel consumption, flight time and operating cost, of the optimised aircraft design are compared to that of the reference aircraft.@en

Air traffic contributes to global warming through CO2 and non-CO2 effects, including the impact of NOx emissions on atmospheric ozone and methane, formation of contrails, and changes in the amount of stratospheric water vapour. The climate impact of non-CO2 effects is highly dependent on the background atmospheric conditions at the time and location of emission. Therefore, there is the potential of mitigating the climate impact of aviation by optimizing the aircraft trajectories. In the present paper, we focus on the properties of alternative trajectories which have the potential to minimize the climate impact of NOx emissions, under a multitude of weather patterns. This study aims at enhancing the understanding of the relation between NOx-climate impacts and routing strategies, by employing the European Center Hamburg general circulation model (ECHAM) and the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model. To this end, we conduct 1-year simulations with the air traffic submodel AirTraf 2.0, coupled to the EMAC model. We optimize 85 European flights, considering the atmospheric conditions at the time and location of the flight, to calculate the expected climate impact from the emitted species through a set of prototype algorithmic Climate Change Functions (aCCFs). The mean flight altitudes of NOx-climate optimal trajectories showed seasonal and latitudinal dependencies. We found that the potential of reducing ozone effects from aviation NOx is subjected to a strong seasonal cycle, reaching a minimum in summer. @en

Aviation ensures mobility for both passengers and goods. It is important as a transport sector for connections on and between continents. Nevertheless, aviation also contributes to anthropogenic climate change. The effects are usually divided in CO2 and non-CO2 effects and therefore not only CO2 emissions but also other emissions (e.g., NOx , water vapour or soot) and contrails are covered. To reduce the effects of aviation’s climate impact, several mitigation options are applied. One approach are climate change functions, which will be addressed here. The concept of climate change functions was used in previous projects, e.g. REACT4C, WeCare, ATM4E. The goal of these functions was to optimize the aircraft routes regarding the calculated climate impact. Climate change functions measure the climate impact per unit emission for a specific day, which considers the current meteorological conditions. Climate change functions were previously used to optimize the aircraft routings. The concept should now be applied for the optimization of the aircraft design as well since the promising concept is currently missing for the application of aircraft design optimization. The climate functions for aircraft design will connect the aircraft design with the climate impact of various emission in order to be able to optimize the aircraft design. For the calculation of the functions, it is necessary to define a specific application. This application results from a combination of aircraft design parameters. Aircraft design parameters can be for example flight altitude, climb rate, speed or range. Based on a resulting emission inventory, the temperature response can be calculated with the model “AirClim”. This model calculates with the input, first, the radiative forcing and based on that the temperature change. The final development step is the verification of the climate functions.@en

Aviation is a highly necessary transport sector in our modern society. It guarantees mobility on a short- and long-range spectrum and is still a growing sector. However, aviation also contributes signi_cantly to the anthropogenic climate change via CO2 and non-CO2 e_ects. One possibility to reduce the climate impact of aviation would be to optimize the aircraft at the design level. Another possibility is to optimize the operations, e.g. to avoid climate sensitive regions in the ight route. To derive modelling capabilities, we review the climate impact of aviation with a focus on climate optimization of aircraft operations and design. The overall climate impact of aviation based on CO2 and non-CO2 e_ects is analyzed under consideration of contrails and di_erent emissions like CO2, NOx, and H2O. The connection to the related temperature change is shown via the climate sensitivity for each species. An overview over the most common climate metrics, including radiative forcing, global warming potential, global temperature potential, and the average temperature response is given in order to _nd the most suitable climate metric for aircraft design purposes. During previous studies within various projects, e.g. WeCare, REACT4C, and ATM4E, climate optimization strategies for aircraft operations were investigated. The aircraft routes regarding the ight path or altitude can be adjusted in regard to climate considerations, also in dependence on the current weather situation. In these projects, climate change functions and algorithmic climate change functions were developed which could potentially facilitate the climate optimized routings. The aircraft design for climate optimization di_ers from the approach to optimize the design for reduced cost or reduced fuel burn. For the climate impact, ying slow and low is bene_cial which was shown in the project CATS, but this is not reected in the current aircraft design. Therefore, previous studies propose redesigned aircraft. The relation between climate, aircraft operations and aircraft design is used to point out the requirements for modelling resulting from that. The focus is on the connection between climate and operations on one side, and on the connection between climate and design considerations on the other side. Currently, the model capacity for aircraft design does not support the climate optimized design. Therefore, deriving climate functions for aircraft design is highly important which will be one of the main goals in the Clean Sky 2 project GLOWOPT (Global-Warming-Optimized Aircraft Design). @en

For the first time, the algorithmic Climate Change Functions (aCCFs) for ozone, methane, water vapor, and persistent contrails have been developed within the ATM4E project to provide information on the climate sensitive regions, which can be conveniently implemented for the climate based flight routing. These aCCFs need to be verified before they are implemented. In this paper, we focus on the verification of the ozone aCCFs to enable the prediction of the short-term NOx effects from aviation en-route. The verification is conducted from two aspects. Firstly, the climatology of the ozone aCCFs is calculated based on a one-year simulation and verified by the existing literature. Secondly, the effectiveness of the ozone aCCFs for optimizing aircraft trajectories concerning the climate impact is verified by the comprehensive climate-chemistry model calculation. @en

Air traffic management as currently under development by the Single European Sky ATM Research program has an important role to play in reducing environmental impact of aviation by operational means, in addition to the improvements to be derived from improved aircraft and engine technologies. Information on environmental and climate impact of aviation emissions are required during the flight planning process, in order to assess environmental impact of aircraft operations for an environmental optimization of aircraft trajectories. Modelling capabilities linking such environmental impact information with the air traffic management (ATM) are required to allow a multi-dimensional environmental impact assessment during the flight planning process. For this purpose, this study presents a concept for an advanced MET Service which enables to determine aviation emission climate impacts for carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, contrails, and water vapour, on a daily basis. This concept has been developed within the Exploratory Research Project ATM4E (Air Traffic Management for Environment, SESAR2020). It relies on so-called algorithmic environmental change functions (aECFs) which provide expected environmental impact of a local emission and which can be directly integrated in aircraft trajectory optimisation tools, based on weather forecast data. We present how to transform environmental impact of aviation emissions calculated with state-of-the-art climate-chemistry-models into environmental change functions, and further on relating them to synoptical forecast information to generate aECFs. We present ideas on future implementation of such advanced meteorological services required for climate-optimization into air traffic management in a case study for Europe using prototype ECFs. We show that regions sensitive to aviation emissions can be avoided with only small changes in flight time and at low costs. Environmental performance parameters, e.g. overall climate impact given as average temperature change over a specific period, demonstrates environmental benefit of such routing options. Assuming market-based measures were in place, which include these non-CO2 effects, climate optimal routing of aircraft would even be beneficial for airline operators. Having available such kind of comprehensive assessment framework in ATM integrating aECFs as advanced MET Service would allow studying and characterising changes in traffic flows due to environmental optimisation, as well as studying trade-offs between distinct strategic measures. The current study has been supported by ATM4E project, which has received funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 699395 under European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. High-performance computing simulations with the chemistry-climate model EMAC were performed at the Deutsches Klima-Rechenzentrum (DKRZ), Hamburg. @en

Air traffic guarantees mobility and serves the needs of society to travel over long distances in a decent time. But aviation also contributes to climate change. Here, we present various mitigation options, based on technological and operational measures and present a framework to compare the different mitigation options by taking into account aspects, such as changes in operational costs, climate impact reduction, eco-efficiency, possible starting point of the mitigation option and the investment costs. We show that it is not possible to directly rank these options because of the different requirements and framework conditions. Instead, we introduce two different presentations that take into account these different aspects and serve as a framework for intercomparison.

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In air traffic management, optimization is often restricted to local areas, e.g., to the vicinity of airports. Procedures around these areas stay unchanged, and effects from optimizations concerning ecological efficiency are not considered adequately. Investigating new concepts, this typically results in local gain of efficiency without proving the global benefit. The project World Wide Air Traffic Management (WW-ATM) creates a platform for optimization and validation of world-wide concepts considering feasibility, throughput, costs-and ecological efficiency, and robustness respectively fault liability. Based on different evaluation and optimization tools, complete traffic scenarios can be analyzed and improved both strategically and tactically.@en

Comprehensive assessment of the environmental aspects of flight movements is of increasing interest to the aviation sector as a potential input for developing sustainable aviation strategies that consider climate impact, air quality and noise issues simultaneously. However, comprehensive assessments of all three environmental aspects do not yet exist and are in particular not yet operational practice in flight planning. The purpose of this study is to present a methodology which allows to establish a multi-criteria environmental impact assessment directly in the flight planning process. The method expands a concept developed for climate optimisation of aircraft trajectories, by representing additionally air quality and noise impacts as additional criteria or dimensions, together with climate impact of aircraft trajectory. We present the mathematical framework for environmental assessment and optimisation of aircraft trajectories. In that context we present ideas on future implementation of such advanced meteorological services into air traffic management and trajectory planning by relying on environmental change functions (ECFs). These ECFs represent environmental impact due to changes in air quality, noise and climate impact. In a case study for Europe prototype ECFs are implemented and a performance assessment of aircraft trajectories is performed for a one-day traffic sample. For a single flight fuel-optimal versus climate-optimized trajectory solution is evaluated using prototypic ECFs and identifying mitigation potential. The ultimate goal of such a concept is to make available a comprehensive assessment framework for environmental performance of aircraft operations, by providing key performance indicators on climate impact, air quality and noise, as well as a tool for environmental optimisation of aircraft trajectories. This framework would allow studying and characterising changes in traffic flows due to environmental optimisation, as well as studying trade-offs between distinct strategic measures@en

Aviation contributes to the anthropogenic climate impact through emissions. Mobility becomes more and more important to society and hence air transportation is expected to grow further over the next decades. Mitigating the climate impact from aviation emissions is needed and a climate compatible air transportation system is required for a sustainable development of commercial aviation. A number of studies suggest avoiding climate sensitive regions by re-routing horizontally and vertically: climate optimized routing. This includes several routing strategies (mitigation options) and shows a great potential for a climate impact reduction, since most of the climate impact arises from non-CO2 emissions, which are short-lived and vary regionally. This study introduces a new assessment platform AirTraf, which is a simplified model to perform long-term global air traffic simulation in a climate-chemistry model, enabling the assessment of routing strategies. A demonstration of a one-day AirTraf simulation was performed using 103 flight plans for transatlantic flights of Airbus A330 aircraft. The results confirmed that AirTraf simulates the air traffic properly both for flights along the great circle and wind-optimal strategies.@en