Contrail cirrus account for the major share of aviation’s climate impact. Yet, the links between jet fuel composition, contrail microphysics and climate impact remain unresolved. Here we present unique observations from two DLR-NASA aircraft campaigns that measured exhaust and contrail characteristics of an Airbus A320 burning either standard jet fuels or low aromatic sustainable aviation fuel blends. Our results show that soot particles can regulate the number of contrail cirrus ice crystals for current emission levels. We provide experimental evidence that burning low aromatic sustainable aviation fuel can result in a 50 to 70% reduction in soot and ice number concentrations and an increase in ice crystal size. Reduced contrail ice numbers cause less energy deposition in the atmosphere and less warming. Meaningful reductions in aviation’s climate impact could therefore be obtained from the widespread adoptation of low aromatic fuels, and from regulations to lower the maximum aromatic fuel content.

Abstract. A new cloud microphysical scheme including a detailed parameterization for aerosol-driven ice formation in cirrus clouds is implemented in the global ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) chemistry–climate model and coupled to the third generation of the Modal Aerosol Dynamics model for Europe adapted for global applications (MADE3) aerosol submodel. The new scheme is able to consistently simulate three regimes of stratiform clouds – liquid, mixed-, and ice-phase (cirrus) clouds – considering the activation of aerosol particles to form cloud droplets and the nucleation of ice crystals. In the cirrus regime, it allows for the competition between homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing for the available supersaturated water vapor, taking into account different types of ice-nucleating particles, whose specific ice-nucleating properties can be flexibly varied in the model setup. The new model configuration is tuned to find the optimal set of parameters that minimizes the model deviations with respect to observations. A detailed evaluation is also performed comparing the model results for standard cloud and radiation variables with a comprehensive set of observations from satellite retrievals and in situ measurements. The performance of EMAC-MADE3 in this new coupled configuration is in line with similar global coupled models and with other global aerosol models featuring ice cloud parameterizations. Some remaining discrepancies, namely a high positive bias in liquid water path in the Northern Hemisphere and overestimated (underestimated) cloud droplet number concentrations over the tropical oceans (in the extratropical regions), which are both a common problem in these kinds of models, need to be taken into account in future applications of the model. To further demonstrate the readiness of the new model system for application studies, an estimate of the anthropogenic aerosol effective radiative forcing (ERF) is provided, showing that EMAC-MADE3 simulates a relatively strong aerosol-induced cooling but within the range reported in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments.

Abstract. Low-level clouds (LLCs) cover a wide area of southern West Africa (SWA) during the summer monsoon months and have an important cooling effect on the regional climate. Previous studies of these clouds have focused on modelling and remote sensing via satellite. We present the first comprehensive set of in situ measurements of cloud microphysics from the region, taken during June–July 2016, as part of the DACCIWA (Dynamics–aerosol–chemistry–cloud interactions in West Africa) campaign. This novel dataset allows us to assess spatial, diurnal, and day-to-day variation in the properties of these clouds over the region. LLCs developed overnight and mean cloud cover peaked a few hundred kilometres inland around 10:00 local solar time (LST), before clouds began to dissipate and convection intensified in the afternoon. Regional variation in LLC cover was largely orographic, and no lasting impacts in cloud cover related to pollution plumes were observed downwind of major population centres. The boundary layer cloud drop number concentration (CDNC) was locally variable inland, ranging from 200 to 840 cm−3 (10th and 90th percentiles at standard temperature and pressure), but showed no systematic regional variations. Enhancements were seen in pollution plumes from the coastal cities but were not statistically significant across the region. A significant fraction of accumulation mode aerosols, and therefore cloud condensation nuclei, were from ubiquitous biomass burning smoke transported from the Southern Hemisphere. To assess the relative importance of local and transported aerosol on the cloud field, we isolated the local contribution to the aerosol population by comparing inland and offshore size and composition measurements. A parcel model sensitivity analysis showed that doubling or halving local emissions only changed the calculated cloud drop number concentration by 13 %–22 %, as the high background meant local emissions were a small fraction of total aerosol. As the population of SWA grows, local emissions are expected to rise. Biomass burning smoke transported from the Southern Hemisphere is likely to dampen any effect of these increased local emissions on cloud–aerosol interactions. An integrative analysis between local pollution and Central African biomass burning emissions must be considered when predicting anthropogenic impacts on the regional cloud field during the West African summer monsoon.

During spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused massive reductions in emissions from industry, ground and airborne transportation. To explore the resulting atmospheric composition changes, we conducted the BLUESKY campaign with two research aircraft and measured trace gases, aerosols, and cloud properties from the boundary layer to the lower stratosphere. From 16 May to 9 June 2020, we performed 20 flights in the early COVID-19 lockdown phase over Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. We found up to 50% reductions in boundary layer nitrogen dioxide concentrations in urban areas from GOME-2B satellite data, along with carbon monoxide reductions in the pollution hot spots. We measured 20 to 70% reductions in total reactive nitrogen, carbon monoxide and fine mode aerosol concentration in profiles over German cities compared to a 10-year data set from passenger aircraft. The total aerosol mass was significantly reduced below 5 km altitude, and the organic aerosol fraction also aloft, indicative of decreased organic precursor gas emissions. The reduced aerosol optical thickness caused a perceptible shift in sky color towards the blue part of the spectrum (hence BLUESKY) and increased shortwave radiation at the surface. We find that the 80% decline in air traffic led to substantial reductions in nitrogen oxides at cruise altitudes, in contrail cover, and in resulting radiative forcing. The light extinction and depolarization by cirrus were also reduced in regions with substantially decreased air traffic. General circulation-chemistry model simulations indicate good agreement with the measurements when applying a reduced emission scenario. The comprehensive BLUESKY dataset documents the major impact of anthropogenic emissions on the atmospheric composition.