Evaluation of Aviation Emissions and Environmental Costs in Europe Using OpenSky and OpenAP

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a data-driven approach that estimates cruise-level flight emissions over Europe using OpenSky ADS-B data and OpenAP emission models. Flight information, including position, altitude, speed, and the vertical rate are obtained from the OpenSky historical database, gathered at a sample rate of 15 s. Emissions from each flight are estimated at a 30-s time interval. This study makes use of the first four months of flights in 2020 over the major part of Europe. The dataset covers the period before and at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aggregated results show cruise-level flight emissions by different airlines, geographic regions, altitudes, and timeframe (e.g., weeks). We also estimate environmental costs associated with aviation in Europe by using marginal cost values from the literature. Overall, we have demonstrated how open flight data from OpenSky can be employed to rapidly assess aviation emissions at varying spatio-temporal resolutions on a continental scale.