
It turns out planes are even worse for the climate than we thought - sahin-boydas
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2207886-it-turns-out-planes-are-even-worse-for-the-climate-than-we-thought/
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originalvichy
During the 9/11 aircraft grounding, climatologists had a pretty unique chance
to measure temperature variance compared to historical data.

Just the few days of data showed that days became warmer and nights became
cooler. I pretty much had no idea that just trails could impact weather so
noticeably until I read up on this experiment.

As a european citizen I’d vote for all subsidies that go towards intra-
European air travel to go towards railway traffic.

The US should so something serious about plane travel as well. At least we
have the excuse of completely separate governmental entities that built
different railway infrastructure. The US is probably lacking behind China who
practically just began connecting their nation through high-speed railways.

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astrodust
The other thing astonishing about 9/11 was how _quiet_ it was. The ambient
white noise of aircraft was non-existent, and it is considerable in any major
urban area.

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sjg007
I think people underestimate just how bad noise pollution is for you...

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mdorazio
Really interesting that certain types of cloud formation (including those
created by aircraft) can actually increase mean surface temperature. I had
always assumed that the reflection of sunlight outweighed the insulating
effect. Does anyone have a link to some kind of model that explains the
factors in this?

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avmich
Wonder how much contrails are created by rockets? If we'd move the travel
above the atmosphere, how much could be saved?

An alternative is to move back to slower propeller planes, maybe with electric
motors (improving over Tu-95?) but that would increase flight times.

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mc32
Aren’t those less efficient and less reliable as well? I don't see going back
to props. What's the mean time before overhaul on both? Also lower ceiling.

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avmich
Rockets - perhaps, for today, but maybe they could be improved.

Propeller planes - why? They were used for long time and many technologies are
quite mature.

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thecount122195
Propellers have a fundamental speed limit on them, the tips can not exceed the
speed of sound or else shock waves form which cause the efficiency to drop off
sharply, as well as creating massive noise pollution from the sonic boom
constantly coming off the propeller. Todays commercial "jet" engines are
actually closer related to propeller planes than pure jets, turbofans provide
the majority of their thrust from the ducted fan rather than the jet exhaust
coming out the back.

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namirez
Original paper (pdf): [https://www.atmos-chem-
phys.net/19/8163/2019/acp-19-8163-201...](https://www.atmos-chem-
phys.net/19/8163/2019/acp-19-8163-2019.pdf)

