Airport related emissions and impacts on air quality: Application to the Atlanta International Airport

Alper Unal; Yongtao Hu; Michael E. Chang; M. Talat Odman; Armistead G. Russell

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.05.051

Airport related emissions and impacts on air quality: Application to the Atlanta International Airport

Alper Unal^*, Yongtao Hu, Michael E. Chang, M. Talat Odman, Armistead G. Russell

^*Corresponding author for this work

Georgia Institute of Technology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

183 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the last decade, air traffic has increased dramatically with a significant increase in emissions. Our goal is to quantify the impact of aircraft emissions on regional air quality, especially in regards to PM _2.5 and ozone. Here the focus is on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport which is the busiest airport in the world based on passenger traffic. First, aircraft PM_2.5 emissions are estimated based on the Smoke Number (SN) by using the "first order" method. The Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS) is used for gaseous species. PM_2.5 emissions are estimated once based on the characteristic SN and a second time using the mode-specific SN. Further, aircraft emissions are processed in two ways: (1) allocating the emissions at the airport itself, and (2) by accounting for flight paths, mode, and plume rise. When the more conservative emission estimates are used (i.e, the characteristic SN estimates allocated to the airport), results suggest that Hartsfield-Jackson airport can have a maximum impact of 56 ppb on ozone with a 5 ppb average impact over most of the Atlanta area. PM_2.5 impacts are also estimated to be quite large with a maximum local impact of 25 μg m^-3. Impacts over most of the Atlanta area are less than 4 μg m^-3. The second set of emissions with detailed spatial allocation leads to a less intense ozone impact with a maximum of 20 ppb and an average of less than 1 ppb. PM_2.5 impacts, in this case, are about 1 μg m^-3 within a radius of 16 km around the airport. The difference in these two results shows the importance of how aircraft emissions are treated. The impacts on ozone and PM_2.5 of ground support equipment at the airport are smaller compared to the aircraft impacts, with a maximum impact of 2 ppb for ozone and 9 μg m^-3 for PM_2.5.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	5787-5798
Number of pages	12
Journal	Atmospheric Environment
Volume	39
Issue number	32
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.05.051
Publication status	Published - Oct 2005
Externally published	Yes

Funding

Our study could not be completed without the contribution from a large number of individuals. Risking omission, we thank Dr. Tom Nissalke, Director of Environment & Technology, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Mr. Doug Strachan of Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Dr. Steven Baughcum of Boeing Company, Mr. Curtis Holsclaw, Manager of Emissions Division, Federal Aviation Administration, Ms. Debbie Calevich–Wilson of Kimley–Horn and Associates, Inc., Ms. Julie Draper of the Office of Environment and Energy, Federal Aviation Administration, Dr. Chowen Wey of NASA Glenn, and NASA Glenn for financial support.

Funders	Funder number
Office of Environment and Energy
Wilson of Kimley–Horn and Associates, Inc.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Federal Aviation Administration

Keywords

Aircraft emissions
Fine particulate matter
Ozone
Regional air quality

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10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.05.051

Cite this

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title = "Airport related emissions and impacts on air quality: Application to the Atlanta International Airport",

abstract = "In the last decade, air traffic has increased dramatically with a significant increase in emissions. Our goal is to quantify the impact of aircraft emissions on regional air quality, especially in regards to PM 2.5 and ozone. Here the focus is on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport which is the busiest airport in the world based on passenger traffic. First, aircraft PM2.5 emissions are estimated based on the Smoke Number (SN) by using the {"}first order{"} method. The Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS) is used for gaseous species. PM2.5 emissions are estimated once based on the characteristic SN and a second time using the mode-specific SN. Further, aircraft emissions are processed in two ways: (1) allocating the emissions at the airport itself, and (2) by accounting for flight paths, mode, and plume rise. When the more conservative emission estimates are used (i.e, the characteristic SN estimates allocated to the airport), results suggest that Hartsfield-Jackson airport can have a maximum impact of 56 ppb on ozone with a 5 ppb average impact over most of the Atlanta area. PM2.5 impacts are also estimated to be quite large with a maximum local impact of 25 μg m-3. Impacts over most of the Atlanta area are less than 4 μg m-3. The second set of emissions with detailed spatial allocation leads to a less intense ozone impact with a maximum of 20 ppb and an average of less than 1 ppb. PM2.5 impacts, in this case, are about 1 μg m-3 within a radius of 16 km around the airport. The difference in these two results shows the importance of how aircraft emissions are treated. The impacts on ozone and PM2.5 of ground support equipment at the airport are smaller compared to the aircraft impacts, with a maximum impact of 2 ppb for ozone and 9 μg m-3 for PM2.5.",

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Airport related emissions and impacts on air quality: Application to the Atlanta International Airport

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