Aircraft Vapor Trails Responsible for 15-20% of Arctic Warming

[n2doc]

by David DeFranza on 12.22.09
CARS & TRANSPORTATION

Even though there are an estimated 35 million commercial airline flights per year little research has been done on the effects of aircraft emissions on global warming. Now, scientists at Stanford University have released the results of the first such study conducted in the United States to be based on actual emissions data.

Their results are unsettling but also provide new insight into the delicate physics of the atmosphere.

Using emissions data from 2004 and 2006, the research team was able to determine that commercial aircraft emissions were responsible for between four and eight percent of total surface warming since records began in 1850. This, they explained, is the equivalent of 0.03-0.06 degree Celsius increase.

The situation in the Arctic is more extreme. Research showed that between 15 to 20 percent of warming in this region was caused by the vapor trails of commercial aircraft.

To reach these conclusions, Mark Jacobson, a Stanford engineer, and his team, built a model that considered "atmospheric composition, cloudiness and the physical properties of emissions, particularly of black carbon." These variables were then applied to a grid and aligned with historical data.

more:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/aircraft-vapor-trails-responsible-for-15-20-percent-of-arctic-warming.php

[marmar]

1. High-speed electric rail or bust......

[OnlinePoker]

2. See the splotch

at the front of the train? Something couldn't get out of the way in time.

[marmar]

4. I saw it.....I hope it was just a really big bug. :)

I changed the picture because the other one was so big.

[denbot]

5. Umm bird strike?

:eyes:

[kestrel91316]

7. Yeah, and they will find a way to make it 3x as expensive as flying.

[Goldstein1984]

3. Another indicator that the human population is going to have to

radically rethink the way we use the ecosphere.

I doubt the human population is capable of that much unity or organization, so my gut tells me that it is going to be Nature using difficult lessons that teaches us.

[Newsjock]

6. All aircraft will be restricted to Warp 5 from this point forward

Starfleet orders.