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Air traffic contributes to anthropogenic global warming by about 5% due to CO2 emissions and non-CO2 effects, which are primarily caused by the emission of NOx and water vapor as well as the formation of contrails. Since—in the long term—the aviation industry is expected to maintain its trend to grow, mitigation measures are required to counteract its negative effects upon the environment. One of the promising operational mitigation measures that has been a subject of the EU project ATM4E is climate-optimized flight planning by considering algorithmic climate change functions that allow for the quantification of aviation-induced climate impact based on the emission’s location and time. Here, we describe the methodology developed for the use of algorithmic climate change functions in trajectory optimization and present the results of its application to the planning of about 13,000 intra-European flights on one specific day with strong contrail formation over Europe. The optimization problem is formulated as bi-objective continuous optimal control problem with climate impact and fuel burn being the two objectives. Results on an individual flight basis indicate that there are three major classes of different routes that are characterized by different shapes of the corresponding Pareto fronts representing the relationship between climate impact reduction and fuel burn increase. On average, for the investigated weather situation and traffic scenario, a climate impact reduction in the order of 50% can be achieved by accepting 0.75% of additional fuel burn. Higher mitigation gains would only be available at much higher fuel penalties, e.g., a climate impact reduction of 76% associated with a fuel penalty of 12.8%. However, these solutions represent much less efficient climate impact mitigation options.
Benjamin Lührs; Florian Linke; Sigrun Matthes; Volker Grewe; Feijia Yin. Climate Impact Mitigation Potential of European Air Traffic in a Weather Situation with Strong Contrail Formation. Aerospace 2021, 8, 50 .
AMA StyleBenjamin Lührs, Florian Linke, Sigrun Matthes, Volker Grewe, Feijia Yin. Climate Impact Mitigation Potential of European Air Traffic in a Weather Situation with Strong Contrail Formation. Aerospace. 2021; 8 (2):50.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBenjamin Lührs; Florian Linke; Sigrun Matthes; Volker Grewe; Feijia Yin. 2021. "Climate Impact Mitigation Potential of European Air Traffic in a Weather Situation with Strong Contrail Formation." Aerospace 8, no. 2: 50.
Aviation can reduce its climate impact by controlling its CO2-emission and non-CO2 effects, e.g., aviation-induced contrail-cirrus and ozone caused by nitrogen oxide emissions. One option is the implementation of operational measures that aim to avoid those atmospheric regions that are in particular sensitive to non-CO2 aviation effects, e.g., where persistent contrails form. The quantitative estimates of mitigation potentials of such climate-optimized aircraft trajectories are required, when working towards sustainable aviation. The results are presented from a comprehensive modelling approach when aiming to identify such climate-optimized aircraft trajectories. The overall concept relies on a multi-dimensional environmental change function concept, which is capable of providing climate impact information to air traffic management (ATM). Estimates on overall climate impact reduction from a one-day case study are presented that rely on the best estimate for climate impact information. Specific weather situation that day, containing regions with high contrail impact, results in a potential reduction of total climate impact, by more than 40%, when considering CO2 and non-CO2 effects, associated with an increase of fuel by about 0.5%. The climate impact reduction per individual alternative trajectory shows a strong variation and, hence, also the mitigation potential for an analyzed city pair, depending on atmospheric characteristics along the flight corridor as well as flight altitude. The robustness of proposed climate-optimized trajectories is assessed by using a range of different climate metrics. A more sustainable ATM needs to integrate comprehensive environmental impacts and associated forecast uncertainties into route optimization in order to identify robust eco-efficient trajectories.
Sigrun Matthes; Benjamin Lührs; Katrin Dahlmann; Volker Grewe; Florian Linke; Feijia Yin; Emma Klingaman; Keith P. Shine. Climate-Optimized Trajectories and Robust Mitigation Potential: Flying ATM4E. Aerospace 2020, 7, 156 .
AMA StyleSigrun Matthes, Benjamin Lührs, Katrin Dahlmann, Volker Grewe, Florian Linke, Feijia Yin, Emma Klingaman, Keith P. Shine. Climate-Optimized Trajectories and Robust Mitigation Potential: Flying ATM4E. Aerospace. 2020; 7 (11):156.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSigrun Matthes; Benjamin Lührs; Katrin Dahlmann; Volker Grewe; Florian Linke; Feijia Yin; Emma Klingaman; Keith P. Shine. 2020. "Climate-Optimized Trajectories and Robust Mitigation Potential: Flying ATM4E." Aerospace 7, no. 11: 156.
The current push in automation, communication, and electrical energy storage technologies has the potential to lift urban mobility into the sky. As several urban air mobility (UAM) concepts are conceivable, all relevant physical effects as well as mutual interrelations of the UAM system have to be addressed and evaluated at a sufficient level of fidelity before implementation. Therefore, a collaborative system of systems modeling approach for UAM is presented. To quickly identify physical effects and cross-disciplinary influences of UAM, a pool of low-fidelity physical analysis components is developed and integrated into the Remote Component Environment (RCE) workflow engine. This includes, i. a., the disciplines of demand forecast, trajectory, vertiport, and cost modeling as well as air traffic flow and capacity management. The definition and clarification of technical interfaces require intensive cooperation between specialists with different areas of expertise. To reduce this communication effort, the Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Schema (CPACS) is adapted and used as central data exchange format. The UAM system module is initially applied for a 24-hour simulation of three generic networks in Hamburg City. After understanding the basic system-level behavior, higher level analysis components and feedback loops must be integrated in the UAM system module for evaluation and optimization of explicit operating concepts.
Malte Niklaß; Niclas Dzikus; Majed Swaid; Jan Berling; Benjamin Lührs; Alexander Lau; Ivan Terekhov; Volker Gollnick. A Collaborative Approach for an Integrated Modeling of Urban Air Transportation Systems. Aerospace 2020, 7, 50 .
AMA StyleMalte Niklaß, Niclas Dzikus, Majed Swaid, Jan Berling, Benjamin Lührs, Alexander Lau, Ivan Terekhov, Volker Gollnick. A Collaborative Approach for an Integrated Modeling of Urban Air Transportation Systems. Aerospace. 2020; 7 (5):50.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMalte Niklaß; Niclas Dzikus; Majed Swaid; Jan Berling; Benjamin Lührs; Alexander Lau; Ivan Terekhov; Volker Gollnick. 2020. "A Collaborative Approach for an Integrated Modeling of Urban Air Transportation Systems." Aerospace 7, no. 5: 50.
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.
Sigrun Matthes; Volker Grewe; Katrin Dahlmann; Christine Frömming; Emma Irvine; Ling Lim; Florian Linke; Benjamin Lührs; Bethan Owen; Keith Shine; Stavros Stromatas; Hiroshi Yamashita; Feijia Yin. A Concept for Multi-Criteria Environmental Assessment of Aircraft Trajectories. Aerospace 2017, 4, 42 .
AMA StyleSigrun Matthes, Volker Grewe, Katrin Dahlmann, Christine Frömming, Emma Irvine, Ling Lim, Florian Linke, Benjamin Lührs, Bethan Owen, Keith Shine, Stavros Stromatas, Hiroshi Yamashita, Feijia Yin. A Concept for Multi-Criteria Environmental Assessment of Aircraft Trajectories. Aerospace. 2017; 4 (3):42.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSigrun Matthes; Volker Grewe; Katrin Dahlmann; Christine Frömming; Emma Irvine; Ling Lim; Florian Linke; Benjamin Lührs; Bethan Owen; Keith Shine; Stavros Stromatas; Hiroshi Yamashita; Feijia Yin. 2017. "A Concept for Multi-Criteria Environmental Assessment of Aircraft Trajectories." Aerospace 4, no. 3: 42.