Research Topic /

Environmental impacts of aviation

Aviation emissions modelling

We build global, flight-by-flight emissions inventories from aviation activity data (e.g. our open-source openAvEm model) to estimate aviation's CO2 and non-CO2 emissions with high spatial and temporal resolution. These inventories underpin both our own atmospheric impact studies and those of the wider research community.

Near-airport observations

We carry out aircraft emissions measurements close to runways to characterise aircraft plumes, including ultrafine particles and gaseous pollutants. These observations provide key insights on aviation’s real-world emissions and highlight gaps between certification measurements and real operational emissions.    

Atmospheric modelling

We use chemistry-transport models such as GEOS-Chem, together with Lagrangian and data-driven methods, to trace how aircraft emissions are transported and transformed in the atmosphere, resulting in air quality, human health and non-CO2 climate impacts.

Associated Team

Postal Address: 1 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 ODY