Tracing Aviation Impacts on Air Quality: PM Chemical Composition and Source apportionment near Zürich airport

Aircraft emissions are a significant source of particulate matter (PM) and ultrafine particles (UFP) during takeoff, landing, taxiing, and idling, degrading air quality near airports. With air traffic projected to grow by 4.2% annually, doubling pre-pandemic levels by 2040 (IATA, 2023a), the environmental and health implications are profound. Increased PM and UFP has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and airports contribute to primary and secondary PM, affecting urban and regional air quality, with studies showing impacts extending up to 18 km downwind from major airports like LAX (Hudda et al., 2012).

The Aviation Plume PROPeRtIes AT Point of Exposure (APPROPRIATE) project investigates aircraft emissions at Zürich Airport, Switzerland’s largest. The project integrates laboratory and test cell measurements with field campaigns to bridge critical knowledge gaps in understanding the influence of aviation on local/regional air quality and human health. As part of this initiative, an intensive, month-long measurement campaign was conducted in the fall of 2022, approximately 1 kilometer east of the airport (downwind side), where a specialized container equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation was deployed. Key measurements included LTOF-AMS (organic and inorganic composition), EESI-LTOF (molecular-level organic aerosol composition), and VOCUS-PTRMS (organic gases) to sample the complex emissions generated during aircraft operations.

LTOF-AMS source apportionment PMF results from the 2022 campaign, resolved nine factors: two OOA factors, one COA, one HOA, one NOA, two BBOA factors, one organic nitrogen–rich factor, and one event-related factor, providing an overview of the dominant PM₂.₅ components and source influences. Several of these factors show signatures consistent with airport-related emissions, indicating a substantial impact of airport activities on local air quality. Within the organic aerosol fraction, fragments associated with aircraft lubrication oil are observed. Complementary measurements from EESI, VOCUS, and other instruments will be used and distinguish airport emissions from other anthropogenic and biogenic sources.

References

IATA (2023a), Global Outlook for Air Transport.

Neelakshi Hudda, Scott A. Fruin, Environmental Science & Technology 2016 50 (7), 3362-3370

Zhenhong Yu, Scott C. Herndon, Luke D. Ziemba, Michael T. Timko, David S. Liscinsky, Bruce E. Anderson, and Richard C. Miake-Lye, Environmental Science & Technology 2012 46 (17), 9630-9637