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When working towards regulation of supersonic aviation, a comprehensive understanding of the global climate effect of supersonic aviation is required in order to develop future regulatory issues. Such research requires a comprehensive overview of existing scientific literature having explored the climate effect of aviation. This review article provides an overview on earlier studies assessing the climate effects of supersonic aviation, comprising non-CO2 effects. An overview on the historical evaluation of research focussing on supersonic aviation and its environmental impacts is provided, followed by an overview on concepts explored and construction of emission inventories. Quantitative estimates provided for individual effects are presented and compared. Subsequently, regulatory issues related to supersonic transport are summarised. Finally, requirements for future studies, e.g., in emission scenario construction or numerical modelling of climate effects, are summarised and main conclusions discussed.

This paper discloses a new algorithm, called sustainable supersonic fuel flow method, to complement the conceptual design of future supersonic aircraft with pollutant and greenhouse gases emissions estimation. Starting from already existing algorithms currently used to assess the environmental impact of already developed and operating aircraft, the authors suggest revisions to improve the formulations, thus extending their application. Specifically, this paper has two objectives: to support the design of future supersonic aircraft and to evaluate the impact of the exploitation of more sustainable aviation fuels, with special focus on biofuels and biofuel blends, since the conceptual design stage. The core of the algorithm developed to predict in-flight emissions of a supersonic aircraft has been validated with public data of Concorde flight experiments. In addition, corrective factors accounting for the most recently developed and certified biofuels have been included in the formulation.

Depletion of stratospheric ozone, and the associated increase in population exposure to UV radiation, is an environmental consequence of high-altitude, supersonic aviation. Assessments of the impacts of emissions from subsonic aircraft – which fly at lower altitudes – have instead shown that they produce a net increase, rather than decrease, in global net ozone, suggesting the existence of an intermediate "column ozone neutral" cruise altitude. Knowing this altitude and its variation with factors such as latitude, season, and fuel composition could provide a pathway towards reducing the environmental impacts of aviation, but would require a prohibitive number of atmospheric simulations. We instead use the newly developed GEOS-Chem tropospheric-stratospheric adjoint to identify the location of the column ozone-neutral aircraft cruise altitude as a function of these factors. We show that, although the mean ozone neutral altitude is at 13.5 km globally, this varies from 14.6 km to 12.5 km between the equator and 60°N. This altitude varies by less than a kilometer between seasons, but the net depletion resulting from flying at greater altitudes varies by a factor of two. We also find that eliminating fuel sulfur would result in a neutral altitude 0.5–1.0 km greater than when conventional jet fuel is burned. Our results imply that a low Mach number supersonic aircraft burning low-sulfur fuel (e.g. biofuels) may be able to achieve net zero global ozone change. However, for a fleet to achieve ozone neutrality will require careful consideration of the non-linear variation in sensitivity with altitude and latitude. • We use adjoint methods to calculate ozone loss resulting from flights at any altitude. • We find that ozone depletion from aircraft depends non-linearly on flight altitude. • Supersonic aircraft are likely to cause significant ozone depletion. • Flight at 13–14 km altitude could be "ozone neutral". • Inclusion of sulfur in fuel may increase this altitude by 0.5–1.0 km. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When working towards regulation of supersonic aviation, a comprehensive understanding of the global climate effect of supersonic aviation is required in order to develop future regulatory issues. Such research requires a comprehensive overview of existing scientific literature having explored the climate effect of aviation. This review article provides an overview on earlier studies assessing the climate effects of supersonic aviation, comprising non-CO2 effects. An overview on the historical evaluation of research focussing on supersonic aviation and its environmental impacts is provided, followed by an overview on concepts explored and construction of emission inventories. Quantitative estimates provided for individual effects are presented and compared. Subsequently, regulatory issues related to supersonic transport are summarised. Finally, requirements for future studies, e.g., in emission scenario construction or numerical modelling of climate effects, are summarised and main conclusions discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discloses a new algorithm, called sustainable supersonic fuel flow method, to complement the conceptual design of future supersonic aircraft with pollutant and greenhouse gases emissions estimation. Starting from already existing algorithms currently used to assess the environmental impact of already developed and operating aircraft, the authors suggest revisions to improve the formulations, thus extending their application. Specifically, this paper has two objectives: to support the design of future supersonic aircraft and to evaluate the impact of the exploitation of more sustainable aviation fuels, with special focus on biofuels and biofuel blends, since the conceptual design stage. The core of the algorithm developed to predict in-flight emissions of a supersonic aircraft has been validated with public data of Concorde flight experiments. In addition, corrective factors accounting for the most recently developed and certified biofuels have been included in the formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]