Identification

Title

Impact of climate variabilities on trans-oceanic flight times and emissions during strong NAO and ENSO phases

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on trans-oceanic round-trip flight times and consequent CO(2)emissions over the north Atlantic and eastern Pacific regions. For three strongest winter periods of both polarity during 1979-2016, daily mean wind data are used to compute the wind-optimal flight trajectories at cruising altitudes. Results show that intensified upper-level jet streams during the +NAO winters provide stronger headwinds for westbound flights between the eastern US and the western Europe. This causes 4.24 similar to 9.35 min increase in an averaged total round-trip journey time during the +NAO compared to -NAO winters. In the eastern Pacific region, the jet stream is extended eastward towards the southwestern US during the +ENSO period, which lengthens the travel time for westbound flights between Hawaii and the west coast of the US. The increase in travel time of westbound flights is greater than the corresponding decrease in travel time for eastbound flights, resulting in a 5.92 similar to 8.73 min increase of the averaged total round-trip time during the +ENSO compared to the -ENSO periods. Extrapolating these results to overall trans-oceanic air traffic suggests that aircraft will take a total of 1908 similar to 4207 (888 similar to 1309) extra hours during the +NAO (+ENSO) than the -NAO (-ENSO) winters over the North Atlantic (Eastern Pacific) regions, requiring 6.9 similar to 15 (3.2 similar to 4.7) million US gallons of extra fuel burned at a cost of 21 similar to 45 (9.6 similar to 14) million US dollars and 66 similar to 144 (31 similar to 45) million kg of extra CO(2)emissions to all trans-oceanic traffic. In +ENSO and +NAO winters, the chances of a given flight having a slower round-trip flight time with more fuel burn and CO(2)emissions are 2-10 times higher than in a -ENSO or -NAO winter. These results have significant implications for the planning of long-term flight routes with climate variability.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7gx4fvw

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2020-10-09T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact