Prediction of aircraft engine emissions using ADS-B flight data

ABSTRACT Real-time flight data from the Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) has been integrated, through a data interface, with a flight performance computer program to predict aviation emissions at altitude. The ADS-B, along with data from Mode-S, are then used to ‘fly’ selected long-range aircraft models (Airbus A380-841, A330-343 and A350-900) and one turboprop (ATR72). Over 2, 500 flight trajectories have been processed to demonstrate the integration between databases and software systems. Emissions are calculated for altitudes greater than 3, 000 feet (609m) and exclude landing and take-off cycles. This proof of concept fills a gap in the aviation emissions inventories, since it uses real-time flights and produces estimates at a very granular level. It can be used to analyse emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) and water vapour on a specific route (city pair), for a specific aircraft, for an entire fleet, or on a seasonal basis. It is shown how NOₓ and water vapour emissions concentrate around tropospheric altitudes only for long-range flights, and that the cruise range is the biggest discriminator in the absolute value of these and other exhaust emissions.