New research points out that transatlantic flights that employ special airflow-handling techniques can save up to 16 percent in fuel, which equates to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
The key, say the researchers, is flexibility: allowing aircraft to adjust their flight paths more frequently and more widely, depending on the direction of the atmospheric jet stream at the Time. Satellites and the soon-to-be-developed and mature atmospheric jet stream tracking technology mean we can achieve this without elevating the risks of navigation.
If airlines and flight service providers on both sides of the Atlantic agree to adopt the new system, it could reduce CO2 emissions by thousands of tons per year.
Kathy Wells, a PhD student in mathematics at the University of Reading (UK), said, “Even though the system already takes atmospheric currents into account when planning routes, the current transatlantic flight paths are still causing aircraft to consume a lot of unnecessary fuel.”
Wells’ team analyzed about 35,000 flights between London and New York, spanning Dec. 1, 2019, to Feb. 29, 2020, carrying nearly 1 million passengers.
The researchers estimate that about 6.7 million kilograms of CO2 emissions could have been reduced if the optimal route had been used.
With aviation currently accounting for about 2.4 percent of total carbon emissions (and the numbers are growing), there is an urgent need to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Paul Williams, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Reading, said: “Improving aircraft or switching to biofuels could significantly reduce emissions, but at a high cost that could take decades to achieve. Simple adjustments to routes are much cheaper and the benefits can be seen immediately.”
The low-Earth orbit satellite technology needed to make this idea a reality is already in the testing phase.
In the paper, the researchers write, “For future research, we intend to design the theoretical framework for quickly solving robust optimal routes under uncertain weather conditions.”
The research has been published in Environmental Research Letters.
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