Aviation emissions impact surface air quality at multiple scales-from near-airport pollution peaks associated with airport landing and take off (LTO) emissions, to intercontinental pollution attributable to aircraft cruise emissions. Previous studies have quantified aviation's air quality impacts around a specific airport, in a specific region, or at the global scale. However, no study has assessed the air quality and human health impacts of aviation, capturing effects on all aforementioned scales. This study uses a multi-scale modeling approach to quantify and monetize the air quality impact of civil aviation emissions, approximating effects of aircraft plume dynamics-related local dispersion (∼1 km), near-airport dispersion (∼10 km), regional (∼1000 km) and global (∼10 000 km) scale chemistry and transport. We use concentration-response functions to estimate premature deaths due to population exposure to aviation-attributable PM 2.5 and ozone, finding that aviation emissions cause ∼16 000 (90% CI: 8300-24 000) premature deaths per year. Of these, LTO emissions contribute a quarter. Our estimate shows that premature deaths due to long-term exposure to aviation-attributable PM 2.5 and O 3 lead to costs of ∼$21 bn per year. We compare these costs to other societal costs of aviation and find that they are on the same order of magnitude as global aviation-attributable climate costs, and one order of magnitude larger than aviation-attributable accident and noise costs.
Abstract. The cities of Chengdu, Deyang, and
Mianyang in the northwest Sichuan Basin are part of a rapidly developing
urban agglomeration adjoining the eastern slopes of the Tibetan Plateau.
Heavy air pollution events have frequently occurred over these cities in recent
decades, but the effects of meteorological conditions on these pollution
events are unclear. We explored the effects of weather systems on winter
heavy air pollution from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2012 and from
1 January 2014 to 28 February 2017. A total of 10 heavy air pollution events occurred
during the research period and 8 of these took place while the region was
affected by a dry low-pressure system at 700 hPa. When the urban
agglomeration was in front of the low-pressure system and the weather
conditions were controlled by a warm southerly air flow, a strong
temperature inversion appeared above the atmospheric boundary layer acting as
a lid. Forced by this strong inversion layer, the local secondary circulation
was confined to the atmospheric boundary layer, and the horizontal wind
speed in the lower troposphere was low. As a result, vertical mixing and
horizontal dispersion in the atmosphere were poor, favoring the formation of
heavy air pollution events. After the low-pressure system had transited over
the region, the weather conditions in the urban agglomeration were controlled
by a dry and cold air flow from the northwest at 700 hPa. The strong
inversion layer gradually dissipated, the secondary circulation enhanced and
uplifted, and the horizontal wind speed in the lower troposphere also
increased, resulting in a sharp decrease in the concentration of air
pollutants. The strong inversion layer above the atmospheric boundary layer
induced by the low-pressure system at 700 hPa thus played a key role in the
formation of heavy air pollution during the winter months in this urban
agglomeration. This study provides scientific insights for forecasting heavy
air pollution in this region of China.
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