DOCSLIB.ORG

Environmental Conditions Required for Contrail Formation and Persistence Eric J

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Environmental Conditions Required for Contrail Formation and Persistence Eric J JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 103, NO. D4, PAGES 3929-3936, FEBRUARY 27, 1998 Environmental conditions required for contrail formation and persistence Eric J. Jensen,1 OwenB. Toon,2 StefanKinne, • GlenW. Sachse,4 Bruce E. Anderson,4 K. RolandChan, • CynthiaH. Twohy,s BruceGandrud, s Andrew Heymsfield,s and RichardC. Miake-Lye• Abstract. The ambient temperatures and humidities required for contrail for- mation and persistenceare determinedfrom in situ measurementsduring the SubsonicAircraft: Contrail and Cloud EffectsSpecial Study (SUCCESS) exper- iment. Ambient temperatures and water vapor concentrations were measured with the meteorologicalmeasurement system, a laser hygrometer,and a cryogenic hygrometer(all onboardthe DC-8). The thresholdtemperatures are compared with theoretical estimates based on simple models of plume evolution. Observed contrail onset temperatures for contrail formation are shown to be 0-2 K below the liquid-saturation thresholdtemperature, implying that saturation with respect to liquid water must be reached at some point in the plume evolution. Visible contrailsobserved during SUCCESS persistedlonger than a few minutesonly when substantialambient supersaturationswith respectto ice existedover large regions. On someoccasions, contrails formed at relativelyhigh temperatures(>_ -50øC) due to very high ambientsupersaturations with respectto ice (of the order of 150%). These warm contrails usually formed in the presenceof diffusecirrus. Water vapor from sublimatedice crystalsthat entered the enginewas probably necessaryfor contrail formation in someof these cases. At temperaturesabove about -50øC, contrails can only form if the ambient air is supersaturatedwith respect to ice, so these contrails should persist and grow. 1. Introduction mate in particular regions by compiling climatologiesof During recent years, considerableattention has been contrails based on ground-basedobservations [Liou et focused on the climatic impact of clouds. Of particu- al., 1990]. Evaluationof the contrailinfluence on global climate will require use of satellite observations. Assess- lar interest is the possibility that as anthropogenicin- ment of potential future contrail climate impacts based fluences alter the atmosphere and climate, cloud prop- on projected air traffic requires a knowledgeof the en- erties may change, resulting in a cloud-climate feed- vironmental conditions required for contrail formation. back [Twomey,1974; Ackerman et al., 1997]. Contrails The contrail threshold conditions also provide informa- formed by jet aircraft in the upper troposphere are ice tion about how effective aircraft exhaust particles are cloudsformed directly by anthropogenicinjections into as ice nuclei. the atmosphere. Hence, contrails represent a direct an- thropogenicinfluence on cloudsand possiblyon climate. Numeroustheoretical studiesof the thermodynamics Past studies have analyzed the effect of contrails on cli- of contrail formation have been conductedduring the pastseveral decades (see Schumann [1996] for a detailed review). Appleman[1953] used simple arguments about •NASA Ames ResearchCenter, Moffett Field, California. the evolutionof temperature and water vapor in aircraft 2Universityof Colorado,Department of AtmosphericSci- exhaust plumes to predict threshold temperatures and ences, Boulder. pressuresat which contrails could form. Attempts have aBay Area EnvironmentalResearch Institute, San Fran- cisco, California. been made to validate the predictedthreshold temper- 4NASA LangleyResearch Center, Hampton, Virginia. atures using ground-basedobservations of contrails and 5NationalCenter for AtmosphericResearch, Boulder, Col- nearly colocatedradiosonde measurements of tempera- orado. ture and humidity [Peters,1993; Busen and Schumann, 6AerodyneResearch, Inc., Billerica, Massachusetts. 1995]. However,the inaccuracyof radiosondehumid- ity measurementsand the separationbetween humidity Copyright 1998 by the American GeophysicalUnion. measurements and the contrails have limited the useful- Paper number 97JD02808. nessof thesestudies. Recently, Schumann et al. [1996] 0148-0227/98/ 97JD-02808$ 09.00 reported in situ measurementsof temperature and hu- 3929 3930 JENSEN ET AL.: CONTRAIL THRESHOLD TEMPERATURES midity at contrail onset times for a flight following a Atmosphere(40øN) temperatureand pressureprofiles, moderate-sized research aircraft. Their results were in Appleman showedthat contrails should typically form aggreementwith the theoreticalpredictions of threshold under ambient ice-saturated conditionsat pressuresbe- temperatures assumingliquid saturation in the plume low about 300 mbar. This analysis also indicated that is required for contrail formation. formation of contrails in dry ambient air should typi- In addition to determination of how frequently con- cally only be possiblenear 220 mbar. trails form, it is also important to distinguishbetween In situ investigationsof cirrus clouds over the past transient and persistent contrails. The vast majority of severalyears have indicated that ice nucleationcan oc- visible contrails dissipate within a few minutes. Such cur in air that is subsaturated with respect to liquid contrails have little potential for affectingthe radiation water but saturated with respect to ice. This distinc- balance or climate. Occasionally,contrails are observed tion is particularly important in the very cold upper to persist and even grow. Sometimes,the contrailslast troposphere. For example, at-65øC, liquid saturation for hours and spreadinto sheets. The persistenceand is not achieved until the saturation with respect to ice spreading of contrails will determine their impact on (RHI) reaches185%. Measurementsin waveclouds over the radiation balance. Hence, we need to determine the Rocky Mountains during SUCCESS showedclear the relationship between contrail lifetime and ambient evidence of ice crystal formation in air at relative hu- conditions. miditywith respectto liquidwater (RH) < 90% [Jensen In this study, we have used measurementsmade dur- et al., 1997]. Theseresults suggest that the mostbasic ing the SubsonicAircraft: Contrail and Cloud Effects requirement for ice crystal formation in aircraft plumes Special Study (SUCCESS) to correlateenvironmen- might be that ice saturation be achievedat sometime tal conditions with contrail formation and persistence. during the plume cooling. Hence, we should attempt Very precisein situ measurementsof temperature and to distinguishwhether liquid saturation is actually re- water vapor concentrationwere made with various in- quired for contrail formation. struments on the NASA DC-8 aircraft during SUC- To calculate the threshold temperature numerically, CESS. Contrails from the DC-8 were identified by chase we must derive an expressionfor the evolutionof the the aircraft, ground observers,DC-8 aft video, ER-2 nadir saturationwith respectto ice (Si) in the plume. We imaging, and satellite images. Below, we briefly re- begin by writing the plume water vapor mixing ratio view the standard theoretical treatment for predicting in terms of the changein temperature(see Schumann thresholdconditions for contrailformation [Appleman, [1996]for a moredetailed derivation): 1953]. Next, we describethe SUCCESStemperature, humidity, and contrail observations. Then we compare Wplm--Wamb + cpATEI•t•.o (1) the theoretical predictions and observedthreshold con- ditions. Finally, we discussthe implications of these where Wambis the ambient water vapor mixing ratio, results for current theories of contrail formation pro- cp is the specificheat capacityof air, AT is the differ- cesses. ence between the plume temperature and the ambient 2. Theoretical Prediction of Contrail temperature, EI•.o is the emissionindex for water va- por, and Elheat is the emissionindex for heat. Next, Threshold Temperatures we convert from mixing ratio to water vapor number The first detailed analysisof the environmentalcon- density: ditionsrequired for contrailformation was conducted by naircpEIH•.oATRw Appleman[1953], and the topic was recently reviewed in nw,plm--nw,amb q- ElneatRd (2) detailby Schumann[1996]. These analyses were based primarilyon the assumptionthat the temperatureand where hair is the ambient air number density,nw,amb water vapor mixing ratio in the plume are both con- and rlw,plmare the ambient and plume water vapor trolled by entrainmentof ambientair into the plume. number densities,and Rd and Rw are the gas constants Usingthis assumptionwe can calculatethe watervapor for dry air and water vapor. Then the ice saturation in concentrationand temperaturein the plume giventhe the plume is given by ambienttemperature and water vaporconcentration as well as the emission indices for heat and water vapor nw,ambnai,.cpEI•t•.oATR• (3) (heatand water vapor mass per gram of fuelburned). Si,plm-Tlsat,i (Wplm)q-Tlsat,i (Wplm)Z_[heatRd Appleman[1953] argued that wheneverthe available moisturewas greaterthan that requiredto reachsat- where rlsat,iis the saturationwater vapor numberden- uration in the plume, a contrail could form. He thus sity. The saturation with respect to liquid water can calculated threshold temperatures for contrail forma- be calculated in an analogousmanner. The plume sat- tion graphically.The thresholdtemperature turns out uration dependsupon the ambient air density and hu- to be a function of both the ambient relative humid- midity. As pointedout by Busenand Schumann[1995], ity andthe ambientpressure. Using the U.S. Standardnot all of the energy liberated by the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Persistent Contrails and Contrail Cirrus. Part I: Large-Eddy Simulations from Inception to Demise
    DECEMBER 2014 L E W E L L E N E T A L . 4399 Persistent Contrails and Contrail Cirrus. Part I: Large-Eddy Simulations from Inception to Demise D. C. LEWELLEN,O.MEZA,* AND W. W. HUEBSCH West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia (Manuscript received 2 October 2013, in final form 10 March 2014) ABSTRACT Large-eddy simulations with size-resolved microphysics are used to model persistent aircraft contrails and contrail-induced cirrus from a few wing spans behind the aircraft until their demise after many hours. Schemes for dynamic local ice binning and updating coupled radiation dynamically as needed in individual columns were developed for numerical efficiency, along with a scheme for maintaining realistic ambient turbulence over long times. These capabilities are used to study some of the critical dynamics involved in contrail evo- lution and to explore the simulation features required for adequate treatment of different components. A ‘‘quasi 3D’’ approach is identified as a useful approximation of the full dynamics, reducing the computation to allow a larger parameter space to be studied. Ice crystal number loss involving competition between different crystal sizes is found to be significant for both young contrails and aging contrail cirrus. As a consequence, the sensitivity to the initial number of ice crystals in the contrail above a threshold is found to decrease signifi- cantly over time, and uncertainties in the ice deposition coefficient and Kelvin effect for ice crystals assume an increased importance. Atmospheric turbulence is found to strongly influence contrail properties and lifetime in some regimes. Water from fuel consumption is found to significantly reduce aircraft-wake-induced ice crystal loss in colder contrails.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Possibility of Weather Modification by Aircraft Contrails
    October 1970 745 UDC 651.&€19.6’3:551.576.1:629.135.2(798) ON THE POSSIBILITY OF WEATHER MODIFICATION BY AIRCRAFT CONTRAILS WALLACE B. MURCRAY Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, College, Alaska ABSTRACT The possible effect of contrails in modifying the weather is reconsidered in the light of information obtained from ground-level contrails in Alaska. It appears likely that inadvertent cloud seeding by jet aircraft may be of the same order of magnitude as that attained in commercial cloud seeding operations. Further investigation is needed; but in the meantime, the possibility of contrail contamination should be kept in mind when evaluating the results of seeding operations. 1. INTRODUCTION frequently such that a contrail is left while the aircraft is taxiing and taking off or landing so that it is easily Aircraft contrails first attracted public attention during accessible for study. (On the ground, the contrail is called World War 11; but as air traffic has built up to its present ice fog, and it can become a serious problem in flight of the environ- level, they have come to be accepted as part operations.) This discussion is based on observations made ment. Even during World War 11, it kas difficult to watch under the direction of Ohtako (1967; see also Huffman the cloud cover laid down by a large bomber formation 1968) during the course of investigations of ice fog from without wondering what it might be doing to the weather; this and other sources. As a result of these observations, at present, there is widespread belief among the general enough is known about the way the contrail is formed to public and some feeling among scientists (Fletcher 1969, make it safe to state that the contrail formed at cruising Reinking 1968, Livingston 1969, and Schaefer 1969) that altitude is very unlikely to differ greatly from that formed contrails are increasing cloudiness, if nothing more, in on the ground.
    [Show full text]
  • Contrails, Contrail Cirrus, and Ship Tracks
    214 Proceedings of the TAC-Conference, June 26 to 29, 2006, Oxford, UK Contrails, contrail cirrus, and ship tracks K. Gierens* DLR-Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Keywords: Aerosol effects on clouds and climate ABSTRACT: The following text is an enlarged version of the conference tutorial lecture on con- trails, contrail cirrus, and ship tracks. I start with a general introduction into aerosol effects on clouds. Contrail formation and persistence, aviation’s share to cirrus trends and ship tracks are treated then. 1 INTRODUCTION The overarching theme above the notions “contrails”, “contrail cirrus”, and “ship tracks” is the ef- fects of anthropogenic aerosol on clouds and on climate via the cloud’s influence on the flow of ra- diation energy in the atmosphere. Aerosol effects are categorised in the following way: - Direct effect: Aerosol particles scatter and absorb solar and terrestrial radiation, that is, they in- terfere directly with the radiative energy flow through the atmosphere (e.g. Haywood and Boucher, 2000). - Semidirect effect: Soot particles are very effective absorbers of radiation. When they absorb ra- diation the ambient air is locally heated. When this happens close to or within clouds, the local heating leads to buoyancy forces, hence overturning motions are induced, altering cloud evolu- tion and potentially lifetimes (e.g. Hansen et al., 1997; Ackerman et al., 2000). - Indirect effects: The most important role of aerosol particles in the atmosphere is their role as condensation and ice nuclei, that is, their role in cloud formation. The addition of aerosol parti- cles to the natural aerosol background changes the formation conditions of clouds, which leads to changes in cloud occurrence frequencies, cloud properties (microphysical, structural, and op- tical), and cloud lifetimes (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • The Contrail Mitigation Potential of Aircraft Formation Flight Derived from High-Resolution Simulations
    aerospace Article The Contrail Mitigation Potential of Aircraft Formation Flight Derived from High-Resolution Simulations Simon Unterstrasser Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, 82234 Wessling, Germany; [email protected] Received: 3 November 2020; Accepted: 1 December 2020; Published: 5 December 2020 Abstract: Formation flight is one potential measure to increase the efficiency of aviation. Flying in the upwash region of an aircraft’s wake vortex field is aerodynamically advantageous. It saves fuel and concomitantly reduces the carbon foot print. However, CO2 emissions are only one contribution to the aviation climate impact among several others (contrails, emission of H2O and NOx). In this study, we employ an established large eddy simulation model with a fully coupled particle-based ice microphysics code and simulate the evolution of contrails that were produced behind formations of two aircraft. For a large set of atmospheric scenarios, these contrails are compared to contrails behind single aircraft. In general, contrails grow and spread by the uptake of atmospheric water vapour. When contrails are produced in close proximity (as in the formation scenario), they compete for the available water vapour and mutually inhibit their growth. The simulations demonstrate that the contrail ice mass and total extinction behind a two-aircraft formation are substantially smaller than for a corresponding case with two separate aircraft and contrails. Hence, this first study suggests that establishing formation flight may strongly reduce the contrail climate effect. Keywords: climate impact; aviation; formation flight; mitigation potential; large-eddy simulation LES; particle-based ice microphysics; wake vortex 1. Introduction Formation flight (FF) is a well-known strategy of migratory birds in order to improve their aerodynamic efficiency, save energy and increase their range [1–3].
    [Show full text]
  • How Well Can Persistent Contrails Be Predicted?
    aerospace Article How Well Can Persistent Contrails Be Predicted? Klaus Gierens 1,* , Sigrun Matthes 1 and Susanne Rohs 2 1 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, D-82234 Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany; [email protected] 2 Forschungszentrum Jülich, IEK-8, D-52425 Jülich, Germany; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 29 October 2020; Accepted: 27 November 2020 ; Published: 2 December 2020 Abstract: Persistent contrails and contrail cirrus are responsible for a large part of aviation induced radiative forcing. A considerable fraction of their warming effect could be eliminated by diverting only a quite small fraction of flight paths, namely those that produce the highest individual radiative forcing (iRF). In order to make this a viable mitigation strategy it is necessary that aviation weather forecast is able to predict (i) when and where contrails are formed, (ii) which of these are persistent, and (iii) how large the iRF of those contrails would be. Here we study several data bases together with weather data in order to see whether such a forecast would currently be possible. It turns out that the formation of contrails can be predicted with some success, but there are problems to predict contrail persistence. The underlying reason for this is that while the temperature field is quite good in weather prediction and climate simulations with specified dynamics, this is not so for the relative humidity in general and for ice supersaturation in particular. However we find that the weather model shows the dynamical peculiarities that are expected for ice supersaturated regions where strong contrails are indeed found in satellite data.
    [Show full text]
  • In Situ Observations of Contrail Microphysics and Implications for Their Radiative Impact Michael R
    JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 104, NO. D10, PAGES 12,077–12,084, MAY 27, 1999 In situ observations of contrail microphysics and implications for their radiative impact Michael R. Poellot Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks W. Patrick Arnott and John Hallett Atmospheric Science Center, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada Abstract. In this study we present the microphysical characteristics of 21 jet contrail clouds sampled in situ and examine the possible effects of exhaust on natural cirrus and radiative effects of contrails. Microphysical samples were obtained with Particle Measuring Systems (PMS) 2D-C, 1D-C, and FSSP probes. About one half of the study contrails were generated by the sampling aircraft, a Cessna Citation, primarily at times of 3–15 min after generation; the source and age of the others is unknown. On average, the contrails contained particles of mean diameter of the order of 10 mm in concentrations exceeding 2 10,000 L 1. Contrails embedded in natural cirrus appeared to have little effect on the natural cloud microphysics. Anomalous diffraction theory was used to model radiative properties of sampled contrails. The contrail cirrus showed considerably more spectral variation in extinction and absorption efficiencies than natural cirrus because of the large numbers of small crystals in contrails. Embedded contrails also displayed greater emissivity and emission than natural cirrus and a greater spectral variation in transmission. 1. Introduction Illinois also showed locally significant radiative effects [Wend- land and Semonin, 1982]. The radiative impact of an aircraft Increasing levels of air traffic have raised concerns about the contrail is dependent to a large degree on the cloud micro- potential effects of aircraft exhaust on the climate.
    [Show full text]
  • Impact of Biofuels on Contrail Warming
    Impact of biofuels on contrail warming The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Caiazzo, Fabio, Akshat Agarwal, Raymond L Speth, and Steven R H Barrett. “Impact of Biofuels on Contrail Warming.” Environmental Research Letters 12, no. 11 (November 1, 2017): 114013. As Published http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa893b Publisher IOP Publishing Version Final published version Citable link http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114023 Terms of Use Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) Detailed Terms https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Environmental Research Letters LETTER • OPEN ACCESS Related content - A simple framework for assessing the Impact of biofuels on contrail warming trade-off between the climate impact of aviation carbon dioxide emissions and contrails for a single flight To cite this article: Fabio Caiazzo et al 2017 Environ. Res. Lett. 12 114013 E A Irvine, B J Hoskins and K P Shine - Feasibility of climate-optimized air traffic routing for trans-Atlantic flights Volker Grewe, Sigrun Matthes, Christine Frömming et al. View the article online for updates and enhancements. - Modeling of the Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen process—implications for aerosol indirecteffects T Storelvmo, J E Kristjánsson, U Lohmann et al. This content was downloaded from IP address 18.51.0.240 on 16/02/2018 at 19:16 Environ. Res. Lett. 12 (2017) 114013 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa893b LETTER Impact of biofuels on contrail warming OPEN ACCESS Fabio Caiazzo1,AkshatAgarwal1,RaymondLSpeth1 and Steven R H Barrett1,2 RECEIVED 1 Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 16 March 2017 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of America REVISED 2 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
    [Show full text]
  • Contrail Formation in the Tropopause Region Caused by Emissions from an Ariane 5 Rocket
    Progress in Propulsion Physics 8 (2016) 183-196 DOI: 10.1051/eucass/201608183 © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2016 CONTRAIL FORMATION IN THE TROPOPAUSE REGION CAUSED BY EMISSIONS FROM AN ARIANE 5 ROCKET Ch. Voigt1,2, U. Schumann1, and K. Graf1 1Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) Institut fur Physik der Atmosphare Oberpfa¨enhofen, Wessling D-82234, Germany 2Johannes-Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz Institut fur Physik der Atmosphare 21 Johannes-Joachim-Becher-Weg, Mainz D-55099, Germany Rockets directly inject water vapor and aerosol into the atmosphere, which promotes the formation of ice clouds in ice supersaturated lay- ers of the atmosphere. Enhanced mesospheric cloud occurrence has frequently been detected near 80-kilometer altitude a few days after rocket launches. Here, unique evidence for cirrus formation in the tropopause region caused by ice nucleation in the exhaust plume from an Ariane 5-ECA rocket is presented. Meteorological reanalysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts show signif- icant ice supersaturation at the 100-hectopascal level in the American tropical tropopause region on November 26, 2011. Near 17-kilometer altitudes, the temperatures are below the SchmidtAppleman thresh- old temperature for rocket condensation trail formation on that day. Immediately after the launch from the Ariane 5-ECA at 18:39 UT (uni- versal time) from Kourou, French Guiana, the formation of a rocket con- trail is detected in the high resolution visible channel from the SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager) on the METEOSAT- 9 satellite. The rocket contrail is transported to the south and its dis- persion is followed in SEVIRI data for almost 2 h.
    [Show full text]
  • Contrail Cloud Radiative Forcing Over the Northern Hemisphere Derived from Two Years of MODIS Observations *Douglas A
    Contrail Cloud Radiative Forcing over the Northern Hemisphere Derived from Two Years of MODIS Observations *Douglas A. Spangenberg1, Patrick Minnis2, David P. Duda1, and Sarah T. Bedka1 1Science Systems & Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA 2 NASA-Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA *Corresponding author email: [email protected] -2 3. Methodology 2006 Normalized Mean CRF (Wm ) 2012 Total Mean Net CRF (mWm-2) 1. Introduction 2006 2012 • CRF calculated at pixel-level using Fu-Liou radiative SCRF SCRF The constant presence of high-altitude air traffic across the globe influences Earth’s climate transfer model (Fu and Liou 1993; Fu et al., 1998): Day Day through the formation of jet contrails that grow as ice-phase clouds given the right -smooth ice crystal types atmospheric conditions. The contrail radiative forcing (CRF) is used to assess this impact -ice crystal aspect ratio=1.1 on the Earth-Atmosphere system. In this study, satellite data from Aqua and Terra MODIS -2 streams is used to compute the Northern Hemisphere (NH) CRF associated with linear contrails for -data inputs described in section 2. four seasonal months (Jan, Apr Jul, Oct) in the years 2006 and 2012. The contrail cloud properties are retrieved using the NASA-Langley infrared-only Clouds and the Earth’s • CRF=Fconf-Fcon -Fconf = Contrail free upward top-of-atmosphere SW or Radiant Energy System (CERES) algorithm. For each image pixel classified as having a LW flux linear contrail from a sensitive contrail mask, the cloud property retrievals, CERES surface -Fcon = Contrail covered upward top-of-atmosphere SW albedo and emissivity, snow and ice cover, and MERRA atmospheric profiles are used in or LW flux Night Night the 2-stream Fu-Liou radiative transfer model.
    [Show full text]
  • In-Situ Observations of Young Contrails – Overview and Selected Results from the CONCERT Campaign
    Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 9039–9056, 2010 www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/9039/2010/ Atmospheric doi:10.5194/acp-10-9039-2010 Chemistry © Author(s) 2010. CC Attribution 3.0 License. and Physics In-situ observations of young contrails – overview and selected results from the CONCERT campaign C. Voigt1,2, U. Schumann1, T. Jurkat1, D. Schauble¨ 1,2, H. Schlager1, A. Petzold1, J.-F. Gayet3, M. Kramer¨ 4, J. Schneider5, S. Borrmann2,5, J. Schmale5, P. Jessberger1, T. Hamburger1, M. Lichtenstern1, M. Scheibe1, C. Gourbeyre3, J. Meyer4, M. Kubbeler¨ 4, W. Frey2, H. Kalesse2, T. Butler5, M. G. Lawrence5, F. Holzapfel¨ 1, F. Arnold1,6, M. Wendisch7, A. Dopelheuer¨ 8, K. Gottschaldt1, R. Baumann1, M. Zoger¨ 9, I. Solch¨ 1, M. Rautenhaus1, and A. Dornbrack¨ 1 1Deutsches Zentrum fur¨ Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut fur¨ Physik der Atmosphare,¨ Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany 2Institut fur¨ Physik der Atmosphare,¨ Johannes-Gutenberg Universitat¨ Mainz, Mainz, Germany 3Universite Clermont Ferrand, LaMP, Clermont Ferrand, France 4Institut fur¨ Stratospharenforschung,¨ FZ Julich,¨ Julich,¨ Germany 5Max-Planck-Institut fur¨ Chemie, Mainz, Germany 6Max-Planck-Institut fur¨ Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany 7Institut fur¨ Meteorologie, Universitat¨ Leipzig, Germany 8Deutsches Zentrum fur¨ Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut fur¨ Antriebstechnik, Koln,¨ Germany 9Deutsches Zentrum fur¨ Luft- und Raumfahrt, Flugabteilung, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Received: 20 April 2010 – Published in Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss.: 17 May 2010 Revised: 17 August 2010 – Accepted: 3 September 2010 – Published: 30 September 2010 Abstract. Lineshaped contrails were detected with the re- version efficiency to H2SO4 (S↓) of 2.9 % observed in the search aircraft Falcon during the CONCERT – CONtrail CRJ-2 contrail are in the range of previous measurements in and Cirrus ExpeRimenT – campaign in October/November the gaseous aircraft exhaust.
    [Show full text]
  • The Importance of Contrail Ice Formation for Mitigating the Climate
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Institute of Transport Research:Publications Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres RESEARCH ARTICLE The importance of contrail ice formation for mitigating 10.1002/2015JD024696 the climate impact of aviation Key Points: 1 • Avoiding contrail cirrus formation B. Kärcher mitigates aviation climate impact 1 • Altering contrail formation stage Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Wessling, Germany has large but unexplored mitigation potential • Improved process understanding Abstract Aircraft contrails and the cirrus clouds arising from them contribute substantially to enables more reliable estimations of contrail cirrus climate impact aviation-induced climate forcing. The share of aviation in anthropogenic climate change can be reduced by avoiding contrail cirrus formation. The mitigation potential of altering the contrail formation stage is explored using a microphysical model to show how reductions in soot particle number emissions Correspondence to: B. Kärcher, from jet engines, reductions in mean soot particle size, and a decrease in the supersaturation of aircraft [email protected] exhaust plumes substantially lowers the optical depth of young contrails thereby decreasing the occurrence, lifetime, and radiative impact of contrail cirrus. The improved scientific understanding of Citation: initial ice formation processes allows atmospheric effects of mitigation options related to contrail cirrus to B. Kärcher (2016), The importance be investigated in unprecedented detail, especially those associated with the use of alternative aviation of contrail ice formation for mitigat- fuels. This study will enable a leap forward toward more reliable simulations addressing global climatic ing the climate impact of aviation, J.
    [Show full text]
  • Microphysics of Aerodynamic Contrail Formation Processes
    VOLUME 72 JOURNAL OF THE ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES SEPTEMBER 2015 Microphysics of Aerodynamic Contrail Formation Processes JOACHIM JANSEN Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands ANDREW J. HEYMSFIELD National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado (Manuscript received 2 December 2014, in final form 9 April 2015) ABSTRACT Aerodynamic condensation is a result of intense adiabatic cooling in the airflow over aircraft wings and behind propeller blades. Out of cloud, condensation appears as a burstlike fog (jet aircraft during takeoff and landing, propellers) or as an iridescent trail visible from the ground behind the trailing edge of the wing (jet aircraft in subsonic cruise flight) consisting of a monodisperse population of ice particles that grow to sizes comparable to the wavelength of light in ambient humidities above ice saturation. In this paper, the authors focus on aerodynamic contrail ice particle formation processes over jet aircraft wings. A 2D compressible flow model is used to evaluate two likely processes considered for the initial ice particle formation: homogeneous droplet nucleation (HDN) followed by homogeneous ice nucleation (HIN) and condensational growth of ambient condensation nuclei followed by their homogenous freezing. The model shows that the more numerous HDN particles outcompete frozen solution droplets for water vapor in a 0.5–1-m layer directly above the wing surface and are the only ice particles that become visible. Experi- mentally verified temperature and relative humidity–dependent parameterizations of rates of homogeneous droplet nucleation, growth, and freezing indicate that visible aerodynamic contrails form between T 52208 and 2508CandRH$ 80%. By contrast, combustion contrails require temperatures below 2388C and ice-saturated conditions to persist.
    [Show full text]