Mitigating the climate impact of aviation by operational means - A comparative study for different weather situations

Kurzfassung

Aviation’s climate impact in terms of non-CO2 effects can be mitigated by operational trajectory adjustments. However, their effectiveness and efficiency varies significantly for different routes as well as meteorological conditions. Therefore, this study aims for a comparable assessment of different trajectory adaptation approaches under different weather conditions. For this purpose, detailed trajectory calculations are combined with climate sensitivity grids based on algorithmic climate change functions in order to assess variations in climate mitigation potentials. Significant mitigation potentials for vertical, lateral and temporal adaptation approaches are demonstrated and varying mitigation potentials in dependence of the meteorological situation are identified. For instance, higher mitigation potentials can be observed in December compared to June and for missions of higher contrail intensity.