Air traffic management as currently under development by the Single European Sky ATM Research program SESAR has an important role to play in reducing environmental impact of aviation by means of green trajectories, in addition to the improvements to be derived from new aircraft and engine technologies. A comprehensive modelling approach is presented which allows identifying aircraft trajectories having a lower environmental impact compared to the fuel optimal solution. Algorithmic environmental change functions are introduced which allow determining impact of aircraft emission at a given position and time from standard meteorological forecast parameters. A case study for three city-pairs is presented using reanalysis meteorological data. Mitigation potential of environmentally optimized trajectory options is analyzed, using a set of different climate impact metrics identifying robust routing options. This study presents results for a multi-criteria environmental assessment of aircraft trajectories relying on an advanced MET service as developed within the Exploratory Research Project ATM4E (SESAR2020). This framework allows studying and characterizing changes in traffic flows due to environmental optimization, as well as studying trade-offs between distinct strategic measures.

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.

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