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Gaseous and Particulate Matter Emissions and Dispersion from Aircraft Activities at the Copenhagen Airport

  • Mihalis Lazaridis 1,*,   
  • Eleftheria Chalvatzaki 1,   
  • Markus Bittermann 2,   
  • Paul Gebhardt 2,   
  • Sofia Eirini Chatoutsidou 1

Received: 18 Mar 2026 | Revised: 14 May 2026 | Accepted: 27 May 2026 | Published: 04 Jun 2026

Abstract

Emissions of four pollutants (NOx, CO, particle mass (PM), and ultrafine particles (UFPs)) were estimated during aircraft activity at Copenhagen airport. The emissions were estimated for 5 discrete aircraft phases (taxi out, taxi in, take off, climb out, approach/landing) as well as Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) and handling which remain insufficiently characterized in the scientific literature. A Gaussian dispersion model (ISC3-ST) was applied to obtain pollutant dispersion in the vicinity of the airport. Dispersion models are widely used to simulate pollutant concentrations at various airports with most studies dealing with criteria pollutants (NOx, CO, PM). This study evaluated the impact from aviation activities including an emerging pollutant like UFPs. Besides criteria pollutants, assessing the UFPs concentrations at ground level and in the vicinity of airports is critical for evaluating human exposure. Numerical simulations showed that elevated NOx concentrations exceeded the regulated hourly values in the vicinity of the airport facilities. High UFPs concentrations were also modelled close to the airport with daily average values at 100,000 particles/cm3 at the airfield area and values close to 10,000 particles/cm3 at distances close to one kilometer downwind from the airport. Contrary, reduced contribution from aircraft LTO cycles to the ground-level CO and PM was found, with concentrations being lower than the air quality threshold values. These results underline that NOx and UFPs are significant contributors to exposure for both airport workers and residents living close to the airport while CO and PM are more relevant only for the former.

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DOI
10.53941/eccs.2026.100003
Issue
Volume 2, Issue 1
How to Cite
Lazaridis, M.; Chalvatzaki, E.; Bittermann, M.; Gebhardt, P.; Chatoutsidou, S. E. Gaseous and Particulate Matter Emissions and Dispersion from Aircraft Activities at the Copenhagen Airport. Environmental Contamination: Causes and Solutions 2026, 2 (1), 3. https://doi.org/10.53941/eccs.2026.100003.
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