The contribution of aircraft emissions to the atmospheric sulfur budget

An atmospheric general circulation model including the atmospheric sulfur cycle has been used to investigate the impact of aircraft sulfur emissions on the global sulfur budget of the atmosphere. The relative contribution from aircraft sulfur to the atmospheric sulfate burden is larger than the ratio between aircraft emissions and surface emissions due to the calculated long turn-over time of aircraft sulfate (about 12 days). However, in terms of the sulfate mass balance, aircraft emissions are small, contributing about 1% of the total sulfate mass north of 40 degrees N where the aircraft emissions are largest. Despite this small contribution to sulfate mass, the aircraft emissions could potentially significantly enhance the background number concentration of aerosol particles. Based on the model calculations the increased stratospheric background aerosol mass observed during the last decades cannot be explained by increased aircraft sulfur emissions. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.