Module descriptors

The module descriptors for our undergraduate courses can be found below:

  • Four year Aeronautical Engineering degree (H401)
  • Four year Aeronautical Engineering with a Year Abroad stream (H410)

Students on our H420 programme follow the same programme as the H401 spending fourth year in industry.

The descriptors for all programmes are the same (including H411).

H401

Quantification of Aerospace Environmental Impact S4

Module aims

This course focuses on understanding and addressing the challenge of sustainable aviation, using the analytical and computational tools employed by scientists, engineers, and regulators worldwide to monitor and minimize net damages. Basic methods such as the Breguet Range Equation and thermodynamic cycle analysis introduced in previous years will be built upon to understand first what aircraft emit, the ways in which those emissions impact the environment, and how these impacts can be understood in terms of net economic damages. The principal focus of this module is on quantitative methods, first covering fundamental techniques to estimate environmental change and extending to the theory and application of modern atmospheric simulation tools used in real-world environmental impact assessments. This module is necessarily broad: among other topics it will touch on climate science, atmospheric chemistry, ice cloud physics, and the economics of public health. 

Learning outcomes

On successfully completing this module, you should be able to:
1. Calculate the magnitude and spatial distribution of emissions of key pollutants from a typical flight;
2. Explain the physical mechanisms by which different aviation emissions modify the climate, the global ozone layer, and surface air quality;
3. Quantitatively evaluate how different existing or novel aircraft designs, operational strategies, and fuels might trigger different environmental outcomes;
4. Apply modern computational tools in the estimation of aviation's climate and air quality impacts; and

5. Translate environmental impacts from aviation (or any other sector) into monetized health and climate impacts appropriate for use in regulatory settings. 

Module syllabus

Characterizing aerospace as an environmental forcing
 - Calculating emissions
Atmospheric chemistry and physics
 - Atmospheric dynamics
 - Atmospheric chemistry
 - Aerosol chemistry and physics
 - Atmospheric composition modelling
Climate effects
 - Basic climate science
 - Climate modelling
 - Contrails
 - Contrail modelling
Impact analysis
 - Air quality estimation (exposure and epidemiology)
 - Climate calculations (radiative forcing)

 - Impact modelling (economics) 

Teaching methods

The module will be delivered primarily through large-class lectures introducing the key concepts and methods, supported by a variety of delivery methods combining the traditional and the technological.  The content is presented via a combination of slides, whiteboard and visualizer.
Learning will be reinforced through tutorial question sheets.

Assessments

This module presents opportunities for both formative and summative assessment.  
You will be formatively assessed through progress tests and tutorial sessions. 
You will have additional opportunities to self-assess your learning via tutorial problem sheets. 
You will be summatively assessed by a written closed-book examination at the end of the module.
 
You will receive feedback on examinations in the form of an examination feedback report on the performance of the entire cohort.
You will receive feedback on your performance whilst undertaking tutorial exercises, during which you will also receive instruction on the correct solution to tutorial problems.
Further individual feedback will be available to you on request via this module’s online feedback forum, through staff office hours and discussions with tutors.
 
Assessment type Assessment description Weighting Pass mark Must pass?
Examination Closed book written examination 100% 50% N

Reading list

Core

  • Formation and radiative forcing of contrail cirrus

    Kärcher, Bernd

    Nature communications Nature Publishing Group UK

Supplementary

  • Modeling of atmospheric chemistry [electronic resource]

    Brasseur, Guy,

    Cambridge University Press

  • An environmental cost basis for regulating aviation NOx emissions

    Miller, Cassandra J ; Prashanth, Prakash ; Allroggen, Florian ; Grobler, Carla ; Sabnis, Jayant S ; Speth, Raymond L ; Barrett, Steven R H

    Environmental Research Communications IOP Publishing

  • Marginal climate and air quality costs of aviation emissions

    Grobler, Carla ; Wolfe, Philip J ; Dasadhikari, Kingshuk ; Dedoussi, Irene C ; Allroggen, Florian ; Speth, Raymond L ; Eastham, Sebastian D ; Agarwal, Akshat ; Staples, Mark D ; Sabnis, Jayant ; Barrett, Steven R H

    Environmental research letters IOP Publishing

  • Global impacts of aviation on air quality evaluated at high resolution

    Eastham, Sebastian D. ; Chossière, Guillaume P. ; Speth, Raymond L. ; Jacob, Daniel J. ; Barrett, Steven R. H.

    Atmospheric chemistry and physics Copernicus GmbH

  • Atmospheric chemistry and physics : from air pollution to climate change

    Seinfeld, John H.,

    Third edition., Wiley

Background

Module leaders

Dr Sebastian Eastham