Characterizing airplane plumes on the runway

摘要

Airport expansions are on the rise worldwide, and so are questions about the contribution of commercial-aircraft emissions to poor air quality. Now, a suite of papers published in ES&T (pp 1871-1876; 1877-1883; 1884-1891) examines commercial-airplane exhaust plumes and finds that levels of pollution emitted while planes sit idling are higher than is usually assumed. These emissions can easily be reduced, the coauthors note.