Figure - available from: Air Quality Atmosphere & Health
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
Source publication
Aircraft emissions from Landing and Take-Off (LTO) cycles at Chania airport (Crete), Greece were estimated for the year 2016 adopting the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) methodology and using daily data from air traffic. The AERMOD Gaussian dispersion model was elaborated to determine the ground-level concentrations of air pollutan...
Similar publications
Air pollution is an environmental-health challenge that many developing and developed countries are struggling to deal with. The purpose of our study was to characterise the ambient air quality during the year 2019-2020 over two urban sites of DiepKloof and Vanderbijilpark which are located on the South African Highveld. The study characterised PM1...
Short-term exposures to indoor air contaminants can cause adverse health impacts and warrant a need for real-time measurements. The most common indoor pollutants are carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), and particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 μm (PM...
Air pollution exhibits hyper-local variation, especially near emissions sources. In addition to people's time-activity patterns, this variation is the most critical element determining exposure. Pollution exposure is time-activity- and path-dependent, with specific behaviours such as mode of commuting and time spent near a roadway or in a park play...
Background
Extreme temperatures and air pollution have raised widespread concerns about their impact on population health.
Aim
To explore the quantitative exposure risks of high/low temperatures and types of air pollutants on the health of various populations in urban areas in China, this study assessed the effects of temperature and air pollutant...
Understanding the spatial distribution of urban forest ecosystem services is essential for urban planners and managers to effectively manage cities and is an essential part of sustainable urban development. Mapping the spatial distribution of urban forest ecosystem services and improving the accuracy of its assessment scale will undoubtedly provide...
Citations
... Emissions that occurr during the en-cruise phase of a flight (i.e., the climb, cruise, and descend (CCD) cycle) have long been the focus of research, likely because their larger amount compared to emissions generated at low altitudes for landing and take-off procedures (LTO cycle). Subsequent studies focused on emissions from LTO activities, which mainly affect air quality in airports' neighborhoods and have relevant implications for human health and local ecosystems (Wang et al., 2018;Yılmaz, 2017;Makridis and Lazaridis, 2019). Such studies typically analyzed LTO cycle emissions as a whole rather than investigating the LTO subphases responsible for those emissions (i.e., taxiing, take-off, climb out, approach, and landing). ...
Reducing aviation emissions has become a global priority, leading policymakers and industry stakeholders to commit to the achievement of net-zero carbon emissions. Reaching this ambitious goal requires quickly devising and promoting effective policies and measures. Emission levels are heavily influenced by the technological and operational efficiency of airlines and airports. Accordingly, understanding the main patterns underlying aviation emissions is fundamental for evaluating aviation efficiency, ultimately informing the adoption of appropriate policy interventions. In this context, the present study assessed the fuel efficiency and emission patterns of intra-European and intercontinental flights to and from Europe. We estimated the fuel efficiency and carbon intensity of different mission lengths and flight stages using a tool developed by the European Environment Agency and leveraging an extensive flight-level dataset. Our results highlight several critical areas that require policy intervention. First, we found that a relatively high proportion of overall emissions is due to landing and takeoff procedures as well as on-ground activities. These emissions tend to be concentrated at major airports due to layout complexities and congestion, necessitating improvements in surface operations at the individual airport and system-wide levels. Second, regional routes represent the most carbon-intense travel segment, emphasizing the need for efficiency improvements. Promoting innovative aircraft technologies can greatly contribute to increase transportation efficiency and potentially improve the economic sustainability of these routes. Third, the majority of emissions from intra-European aviation occur on cross-border routes, underlying the need for coordinated European-level initiatives, such as strengthening cross-border high-speed rail services and implementing infrastructure investments to mitigate emissions.
... Several studies have treated airport-related emissions with AREA sources (using EDMS or AEDT) in applying AERMOD (Makridis and Lazaridis (2019); Tian et al. (2019); Groma et al. (2018); Kuzu (2017); Arunachalam et al. (2017); Doird (2015); Penn et al. (2015); Simonetti et al. (2015); Feinberg and Turner (2013); Tetra Tech Inc (2013); Kim et al. (2012); Sabatino et al. (2011); Zhou and Levy (2009) and Barrett and Britter (2008); Steib et al. (2007); Martin (2006) and Wayson et al. (2003)). To our knowledge, there is only one study in the open literature in which these emissions are characterized (using EDMS) as VOLUME sources (Carr et al. 2011). ...
Modeling dispersion of aircraft emissions is challenging because aircraft are mobile sources with varying emissions rates at different elevations depending on the operating mode. Aircraft emissions during landing and take-off cycle (LTO) influence air quality in and around the airport, and depending on the number of aircraft operations and location of the airport, this influence may be significant. AERMOD (v22112) incorporates a variety of conventional source types to characterize the intended emissions source, leaving the question of which conventional source type(s) best characterizes aircraft activities across the four modes of LTO cycle, unanswered. Currently, the publicly released version of FAA’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool (version 3e) models aircraft emissions as a set of AREA sources for all flight segments. A research version of AEDT allows users to model aircraft sources—both fixed wing and rotorcraft—as a series of VOLUME sources in AERMOD. However, both source treatments do not account for plume rise of aircraft jet exhaust. This paper compares AERMOD’s performance in describing SO2 concentrations associated with airport sources by comparing model results from the two source options during the summer campaign of the Air Quality Source Apportionment study conducted at the Los Angeles International Airport. We conclude that both VOLUME source and AREA treatments overestimate the highest observed SO2 concentrations despite not accounting for background sources. The VOLUME source option reduces this overestimation by using a higher initial plume spread than the AREA option does, and through the inclusion of meander. Our results suggest the need to include the plume rise of jet exhaust when using AERMOD for airport air quality studies.
... Due to data limitations, some research focuses only on aviation carbon emissions during the LTO phase. For instance, using the EMEP/CORINAIR methodology, a study on carbon emissions from Greece's domestic and international flights from 1980 to 2005 found that aviation carbon emissions increased with air traffic growth [23]. However, the rate of increase varies across airports, and changes in fleet composition and each airport's contribution to total air traffic can impact the increase in each air pollutant [24]. ...
... Makridis and Lazaridis (2019) used ICAO's method and daily data from air traffic to calculate the aircraft pollution emissions of Chania Airport (Crete) LTO cycles in 2016. They discovered that NO 2 exceeded the standard in the busy summer tourist season, but CO, SO 2 , and PM2.5 did not [23]. Most research blends the "bottom-up" approach, suggested by the ICAO to calculate Landing and Takeoff (LTO) emissions, and the "top-down" method proposed by the EMEP for total aviation carbon emissions to ensure complete and precise outcomes. ...
... The BADA database is updated every 3 years, and the latest version is 2023, which has been chosen in this study. EEDB and BADA have widely been used in previous literature [14,23,35]. ...
The rapid growth of urbanization in China has led to a substantial escalation in the demand for civil aviation services, consequently propelling China to the third-largest contributor of carbon emissions within the aviation sector. Using the 2012–2021 data on takeoffs and landings of civil aviation aircraft in China, the aircraft engine emission factor database of the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) from EUROCONTROL, this paper investigates the spatial-temporal distribution characteristics of atmospheric pollutants, primarily carbon emissions from Chinese civil aviation aircraft in 19 megacities. The results indicate that (1) China’s aviation CO2 emissions equivalent between 2012 and 2022 has been on an upward trajectory, peaking at 186.53 MT in 2019 with an average annual growth of 12.52%. The trend, albeit momentarily interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, appears to persist. (2) CO2 constitutes the highest proportion of aircraft emissions at 83.87%, with Cruise Climb Descent (CCD) cycle emissions accounting for 96.24%. CO2 and NOX, with the highest increase rates in the CCD and Landing and Takeoff (LTO) phases, respectively, are identified as the chief culprits in aviation-related greenhouse effects. (3) There is a marked spatial imbalance, with 19 megacities contributing 62.08% of total CO2 emissions, compared to the 207 least-emitting cities contributing just 9.29%. (4) The pattern of city carbon emissions is changing, with rapid growth rates in the western cities of Xinjiang, Tibet, Shaanxi, and Guizhou, and varied growth rates among megacities. The implications of this study emphasize the urgency for advancements in aviation fuel technology, rigorous management of CCD phase pollutants, strategic carbon emission controls in populous cities, fostering green aviation initiatives in western regions, diverse carbon mitigation tactics, and strengthening the precision and surveillance of aviation carbon accounting systems. Collectively, this study paints a grand picture of the complexities and challenges associated with China’s urban sprawl and aviation carbon emissions.
... Studies related to CO 2 emissions during the LTO cycle of airports have been gradually paid attention to in recent years [31]. Aircraft emissions from the LTO cycles at Chania Airport (Crete), Greece, were estimated for the year 2016, adopting the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) methodology and using daily data from air traffic [32]. Developed a methodology using flight data and Daily Aircraft Movement Records (DAMR) data to estimate CO 2 emission levels for different phases of flight within the LTO cycle [33]. ...
This study is the first to propose the deployment of direct air capture (DAC) systems at large airports to provide solutions for achieving carbon neutrality in aviation transportation. Here, an estimating model for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the landing and take-off (LTO) phase of large airports was developed, and the suitability of deploying DAC systems at airports was evaluated by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This study found that the annual CO2 emissions of 52 large airports in the LTO phase are about 23 Mt, accounting for about 23% of the total CO2 emissions of civil aviation in China. The four dimensions of airport transportation conditions, meteorological conditions, space resources, and security levels had a decreasing impact on the deployment of DAC systems in that order. The airports with suitable DAC systems are mainly located in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing Airport Cluster. This study provides a theoretical basis for the deployment of DAC systems at airports, which provides new CO2 emission reduction solutions for the aviation transportation industry.
... Y Son y otros [14] desarrollaron y utilizaron un modelo detallado de dispersión de partículas que incluye factores como el uso del suelo e información meteorológica para crear mapas de distribución de concentración de partículas para la ciudad metropolitana de Daejeon (Corea del Sur), con la finalidad de brindar información precisa sobre partículas a los ciudadanos. Además, Makridis y Lazaridis [15] mediante el modelo de dispersión gaussiana y el software AERMOD determinaron las concentraciones a nivel del suelo de los contaminantes atmosféricos emitidos por los motores de las aeronaves como las emisiones de CO, NOx y también de NO2, SO2, CO2, PM2.5 en el aeropuerto de Chania (Creta), Grecia. ...
... Respecto al objetivo de investigación se evidencia que 5 artículos mostraron resultados positivos respecto a las emisiones del PM y que no excedan a los estándares de calidad ambiental del país y la zona de estudio, o los estándares de emisión de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), tal es el caso de Rojano [18], Santillán y otros [6], Espinoza [13], Makridis y Lazaridis [15], Gibson y otros [35]; por otra parte, 25 fueron los estudios que obtuvieron resultados negativos y que se exceden a los ECA del país o de la OMS. ...
... Sidiropoulos et al, 2005, Kurniawan andKhardi, 2011;Nowak et al. 2020;Tokuslu, 2020;Tokuslu, 2021;Belic et al, 2021;Yimlaz, 2017), and dispersion of aircraft emissions and impact on air quality (e.g. Vujović and Todorovic, 2017;Zaporozhets and Synylo, 2019;Kuzu, 2007;Makridis and Lazaridis, 2019;Simonetti et al, 2015). Apart from aircraft that are the dominant source of pollution at airports (Zaporozhets and Synylo, 2019) some studies also address other on-airport sources of pollution like ground support equipment, boiler rooms, auxiliary power units, passenger related transport, helicopter traffic, etc. (e.g. ...
In this paper, the simulation of aircraft operations at Airport Podgorica was modeled using the SimEvents library of Simulink, for the purpose of aircraft emission calculation. The amount of aircraft pollutants at Airport Podgorica for the peak day in 2019 are calculated and discussed. Model validation was performed by comparing the results of simulation with the results obtained by using Eurocontrol - Integrated aircraft noise and emissions modeling platform (IMPACT). For small and medium-size airports taxiing time assumed by the standard landing and take-off (LTO) cycle, is significantly overestimated. Due to that, for the analysis of aircraft emissions it is preferable to use taxi times calculated for each operation, depending on the runway and the aircraft stand used by a certain aircraft. To illustrate this, simulation model results are compared to the results from IMPACT model with EEA average taxiing time and standard LTO taxiing time.
... Although AERMOD has been applied to estimating the air quality impact of airport emissions (Makridis and Lazaridis (2019); Penn et al., 2015), it has not been formally evaluated with relevant measurements to determine the uncertainty in model results in this type of application. This evaluation is important because AERMOD does not account for unique features of airports and airport emissions that might be important in estimating the air quality impact of airports. ...
The impact of airport operations on air quality is a key public health concern for the population surrounding an airport. Air pollution regulations require the assessment of this impact using dispersion models. Modeling dispersion of aircraft-related sources poses challenges because of the large number and variety of airport sources, which include aircraft, ground operation vehicles, and traffic in and out of the airport, most of which are mobile. Emissions from aircraft sources are transient, buoyant, and occur at different heights from the ground. Quantifying these emissions as well as modeling the governing processes is challenging. An added complexity occurs when the airport is situated near a shoreline where meteorological conditions are far from being spatially uniform. These features that characterize the dispersion of airport emissions are being incorporated into the AERMOD model in this paper. This paper examines the impact of shoreline meteorology and urban effects on dispersion by comparing model estimates of SO2 with corresponding measurements made during a field study conducted at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) during winter and summer of 2012 at all the four core sites (AQ, CN, CE, and CS) as a part of the LAX Air Quality Source Apportionment Study (AQSAS). We modified outputs from AERMOD's meteorological preprocessor AERMET to account for 1) the formation of the internal boundary layer that is formed when stable air from the ocean flows onto the warmer land surface of the airport, and 2) urban roughness effects on winds flowing from Los Angeles, east of the airport. Simulations with unmodified AERMET yielded concentrations that were substantially higher than the concentrations at AQ and CS and much lower than those at CN and CE. Model performance improved when AERMOD used the modified meteorology. The fraction of model estimates within a factor of two of the observations improved from 34 to 84% at the CS site and CE site, by up to 79% in winter season whereas in summer, FAC2 values are almost comparable at all the sites. The ratio of robust highest modeled values to measured values improved from 7.72 to 2.53 and 4.92 to 1.94 in winter and summer seasons respectively.
... Emissions from road vehicles on the airfield, taxiing aircraft, and aircraft taking off and landing are then carried toward the study site. According to Lorentz et al. (2019) and Makridis and Lazaridis (2019), ground-based operations contribute considerably to sub-micron particle emissions. The smaller the opening angle and the corresponding area downwind of the airport are specified, the more pronounced the effect is. ...
The impact of airports on ambient air pollution is a major concern due to its impact on public health. This study analyzes the sub-micron total particle number concentration (PNC) as a proxy for ultrafine particles in the immediate vicinity of Berlin-Tegel Airport (TXL) based on a mobile measurement campaign in summer 2019. With predominantly westerly winds, 45 measurement runs took place along a 20–30 km route to the east of the airport. The highlights of the study are as follows: 1. Berlin-Tegel Airport had a distinct but a spatially limited impact on the residential areas to the east of the airport. 2. Particle number concentrations in the lee of the airport are significantly higher than the mean of the entire area. 3. Locations along the eastward extension of the runways are significantly more affected than those outside the approach corridor. 4. The impact of airport operations on PNC in the adjacent neighborhood is comparable to the combined impact of busy roads in the area. The closure of Berlin-Tegel Airport at the end of 2020 should have considerably improved the air quality in the residential areas in the close vicinity of the airport.
... The UK mean air quality objective of (40 mg/m 3 ) has been breached by high (NO 2 ) concentrations at Gatwick and Heathrow, London airports [19]. A study conducted on Chania airport Greece estimated the level of NO 2 , and the results at 1 h average concentrations indicated that there were twenty exceedances in the concentration of NO 2 above 200 μg/m 3 , and two were surpassing the regulated threshold value by the European Union Directive [20]. Sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ) in high concentrations has multiple environmental and health effects, and it is also found in aircraft fuel combustion. ...
There has been a continuously growing trend in international commercial air traffic, with the exception of COVID-19 crises; however, after the recovery, the trend is expected to even sharpen. The consequences of released emissions and by-products in the environment range from human health hazards, low air quality and global warming. This study is aimed to investigate the role of aviation emissions in global warming. For this purpose, data on different variables including global air traffic and growth rate, air traffic in different continents, total global CO 2 emissions of different airlines, direct and indirect emissions, air traffic in various UK airports and fuel-efficient aircraft was collected from various sources like EU member states, Statista, Eurostat, IATA, CAA and EUROCONTROL. The results indicated that in 2019, commercial airlines carried over 4.5 × 10 ⁹ passengers on scheduled flights. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the global number of passengers was reduced to 1.8 × 10 ⁹ , representing around a 60% reduction in air traffic. Germany was the largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) from the EU, releasing 927 kt of emissions in 3 years. In the UK, Heathrow airport had the highest number of passengers in 2019 with over 80 million, and the study of monthly aircraft movement revealed that Heathrow Airport also had the highest number of EU and International flights, while Edinburgh had the domestic flights in 2018. These research findings could be beneficial for airlines, policymakers and governments targeting the reduction of aircraft emissions.
Graphical abstract
... AERMOD has been used extensively for the spatial dispersion of different pollutants originating from domestic landfills [15,16], a large industrial complex [17,18], and cities and counties [19][20][21]. Air pollutants' dispersion in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) may be described by a Gaussian equation, which refers to steady state dispersion of air pollutants emitted by a continuous pollution source, such as a plume: ...
The contribution of emissions from the stack of a lead battery recycling plant to atmospheric lead concentrations and, eventually, to the topsoil of the surrounding area, were studied. A Gaussian dispersion model, of the American Meteorological Society/United States Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model, (AERMOD) was used to determine atmospheric total suspended particulate lead dispersion, which originated from stack emissions, over the wider study area. Stack emission parameters were obtained from online measurements of the industry control sensors. AERMOD simulated two scenarios for four calendar years, 2015 to 2018, one for the typical stack measured operating conditions and one for the legal limit operating conditions (emissions from the stack set by legislation to 0.5 mg m−3). Deposition fluxes modeled the input of atmospheric total suspended particulate Pb to the topsoil of the area. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses were used to determine lead concentrations in the topsoil. The modeling results were compared with topsoil of six inhabited locations downwind from the stack in the direction of the prevailing winds to estimate the influence of lead deposition on topsoil near the industrial area.
