Global Warming Potential of Green House (GH) Gas Release at Different Altitudes

• Main Author: Katta G. Murty
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: radiation; TME; jet aircraft flying; South Pole; North Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.537.7557; http://www.areco.org/Global Warming Potential of Green House Gas Release at Different Altitudes.pdf

Many human activities involve fossil fuel combustion that releases GH gases. Emis-sions from ground transportation occur at earth’s surface. Tall chimney’s of power plants and smaller private planes release at higher altitudes. Subsonic jet aircraft release in the UT-LS (Upper Troposphere, Lower Stratosphere). Short term analysis ignoring atmospheric circulations indicates that the transient effect of a single release of GH gases on global warming, grows with the altitude of release. Because of rapid mixing in the lower troposphere caused by circulations, there are only two altitudes to compare for longer term effects, the UT-LS, and anywhere in the lower troposphere. Jet aircraft flying is the only activity releasing directly in the UT-LS. Our limited computer runs took only H2O releases into account, and did not consider the formation of condensation trails and cirrus clouds. They indicate that the present releases in the UT-LS cause a slightly larger reduction in the amount of terres-trial radiation escaping to space, than if they were to occur in the lower troposphere. So, the northern mid-latitudes where majority of jet aircraft releases occur today is a sensitive region for such releases. This suggests an important topic for further study. Polar ice melt at the north pole is faster than at the south pole. Whether the large volumes of jet aircraft releases in northern mid-latitudes are at least partly responsible for the faster ice melt at the north pole deserves investigation. 2