Post by alisdairmclean on Jun 5, 2020 17:22:59 GMT
The German research organisation DLR is going to devote two of it's aircraft (a Falcon 20 and a Gulfstream 550) in to measuring pollutants in the atmosphere over the next few weeks, over various locations in Europe, including London. The Max Planck Institute say that the blueness of the skies in recent weeks cannot be attributed simply to meteorological factors, so want to take measurements during the current period of reduced activity as a baseline.
The full article is here:
www.dlr.de/content/en/articles/news/2020/02/20200522_bluesky-examines-the-atmosphere-during-the-coronavirus-lockdown.html?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email
I also looked at the FAAM website (the atmospheric testing 146 which is based at Cranfield) and that seems to be firmly on the ground, not undertaking any similar research.
NOAA in the US do not seem to be doing any particular research in this area, either. However in contrast to the DLR's presumption that pollution levels are currently lower than normal, the NOAA CO2 monitoring station in Hawaii reports atmospheric CO2 levels at an all-time high in May 2020, despite reduced economic activity around the world:
research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2636/Rise-of-carbon-dioxide-unabated
(this article is more generic about CO2 levels, with no specific aviation-related content, so maybe of less direct interest)
It will be interesting to see how the various government organisations around the world assess the impact of aviation on atmospheric pollutants over the coming months and years.
Alisdair
The full article is here:
www.dlr.de/content/en/articles/news/2020/02/20200522_bluesky-examines-the-atmosphere-during-the-coronavirus-lockdown.html?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email
I also looked at the FAAM website (the atmospheric testing 146 which is based at Cranfield) and that seems to be firmly on the ground, not undertaking any similar research.
NOAA in the US do not seem to be doing any particular research in this area, either. However in contrast to the DLR's presumption that pollution levels are currently lower than normal, the NOAA CO2 monitoring station in Hawaii reports atmospheric CO2 levels at an all-time high in May 2020, despite reduced economic activity around the world:
research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2636/Rise-of-carbon-dioxide-unabated
(this article is more generic about CO2 levels, with no specific aviation-related content, so maybe of less direct interest)
It will be interesting to see how the various government organisations around the world assess the impact of aviation on atmospheric pollutants over the coming months and years.
Alisdair
