It is with great pleasure that we announce the 4th ECATS conference to take place at the TU Delft on the 24-26th October 2023.

This will be our first in person conference since 2017, our pandemic conference being online only. We look forward to seeing old and new colleagues in October for what we hope will be a stimulating scientific discussion. Registration is now open and we would invite you to submit abstracts for the conference.

Further details are provided at the conference website here.

Open for Application: 3-8 Sep 2023 Interdisciplinary Summer School on Aviation Climate Impacts

The MORE&LESS project (MDO and REgulations for Low boom and Environmentally Sustainable Supersonic aviation), aims to support Europe to shape global environmental regulations for future supersonic aviation: our recommendations will be established on the basis of the outcomes of extensive high-fidelity modelling activities and test campaigns that merge into the multi-disciplinary optimization framework to assess the holistic impact of supersonic aviation onto environment.

The course scheduled for summer 2023 is intended to provide researchers investigating the impact of aviation on the environment with a wider context of their work in relation to the work of others, and to give the attendees the opportunity to step away from their day to day research and think about the wider problems for aviation today and tomorrow.

Further information is provided here:

The ECATS network have recently published a research article in Nature Communications.

• CORSIA offset programme is likely to miss aviation climate targets in support of the 1.5-degree Celsius Paris agreement.
• This is due to the lack of inclusion of non-carbon-dioxide effects while the air transport sector is expected to grow.
• Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on air transport climate impact is expected to be low as long as sector recovery is achieved within three to 15 years.
• Focus: Aeronautics, climate-friendly flight

In 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) set out climate protection targets for global air transport for the first time as part of its CORSIA programme . After 2020, air traffic should only be expanded in a climate-neutral way. In addition, the aim is to halve carbon dioxide emissions from air transport by 2050, compared to the base year of 2005. A research study led by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has now concluded that the CORSIA targets have the potential to mitigate the increased climate impact of air transport, but that it is very likely that the current measures will not be sufficient to support achieving the 1.5-degree Celsius target established in Paris. This is because non-carbon-dioxide effects, particularly the climate-warming effect of condensation trails, have not been taken into account so far. Research findings from the past few years have made it increasingly clear that contrails and nitrogen oxides together have a greater climate impact in air transport than carbon dioxide emissions alone. The results of the study have now been published in the specialist journal Nature.

“Non-carbon-dioxide effects account for the largest share of the climate impact of aviation. At DLR, we are committed to ensuring that these effects are considered. We want to develop comprehensive solutions for the climate-neutral flight of tomorrow that avoids carbon dioxide emissions and non-carbon-dioxide effects,” emphasises Markus Fischer, DLR Deputy Board Member Aeronautics.

“In our study, we show that the CORSIA offsetting programme in its current form – that is, without taking non-carbon-dioxide effects into account – will fall short of climate targets aimed at the 1.5-degree Celsius limit between 2025 and 2064, with a probability of 90 percent,” says study leader Volker Grewe from the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Oberpfaffenhofen. “As a group of experts, we believe our results reveal the risk of a discrepancy that could lead to an increasing air-transport-induced greenhouse effect instead of stabilisation.” At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, the participating states agreed that global warming should be limited to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels. As a result, the ICAO and its members adopted the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) programme, which is now being implemented by 88 countries around the world.

Stabilising the climate impact with Flightpath 2050

The research team also looked at the Flightpath 2050 emissions targets presented by the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE) in 2011 (75 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and 90 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions by 2050 per passenger kilometre and for individual aircraft by 2050, as compared to 2000). “In our assessment, it is highly probable that these targets can indeed stabilise the climate impact of air transport,” says Grewe. “However, even the targets of Flightpath 2050, which are more stringent than CORSIA, will also lead to a consistent contribution to global warming by this industry in the 21st century. The reason for this is the further growth in air traffic, which is expected to be significant, coupled with insufficient consideration of non-carbon-dioxide effects. At the time that Flightpath 2050 was formulated, these could not yet be properly incorporated into the setting of targets.”

Air transport plays an important role in the global economy. The need for mobility is increasing globally and this will likely lead to significant growth in the air transport industry over the coming decades. The restrictions on air transport caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have been dramatic and continue to have a major impact. “However, the effect on the climate will only be minor if the air transport sector recovers within the next three to 15 years,” adds Grewe. “That is why it is important to set out more ambitious climate targets for air transport now.”

Conference | Programme | Committees | Presentations | Book of Abstracts | Guidelines | Ethics

Roles at conference

This is the first time that ECATS will run a fully online conference event. As such we have developed some guidance for attendees and presenters to try and help make the process as smooth as possible. The programme committee would be thankful if you could follow the guidance below. Here’s hoping that you have an enjoyable and informative conference experience!

All Attendees

The ECATS conference programme committee has designed a conference to allow us all to communicate, share our research and ideas in the same way as we would in a more conventional format as far as is possible. We have organised three types of session on the conference agenda Programme: Conference Sessions, Coffee Breaks and Poster Sessions.

Oral presentations

The main Conference Sessions ran as webinars using Zoom. This software allows the assigning of specific roles to attendees at the conference. The session chairs and presenters formed a panel with the ability to share their screens, webcams and audio. The session attendees were by default only able to see the webcam content and screen content from the presenting member of the panel.

Poster presentations

All posters are available as online documents. We have set up virtual live discussion rooms during the conference, where you could get in direct exchange with the poster presenters. All participants haa audio and video enabled. A moderator supported communication.

Speakers

Standard presentation were 10 minutes followed by a question and answer session. As the time slot for oral contributions was kept short, we requested the speakers to focus on their main issue.The nature of the oral presentations was to draw the audiance’s attention to their contributions in the Special Issue in Aerospace or in the Book of Abstracts.

Poster Presenters

The posters for the ECATS conference were displayed in virtual rooms

Conference | Programme | Committees | Presentations | Book of Abstracts | Guidelines | Ethics

The ECATS handling of personal data is controlled by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and associated legislation. ECATS is obliged to provide you with the following information which explains in detail how and why we are processing your personal data and explains your legal rights.

There are two types of information that we would like to retain as part of the preparation for, and the recording of the ECATS online conference.

Firstly, your names and professional e-mail addresses would be recorded for distribution amongst the conference attendees. We would also retain these addresses for the announcement of future ECATS activities and events. Unless otherwise notified, this information would be held for six years and either be replaced or removed at this point.

For delegates:
As a conference delegate, your contributions to the conference will be recorded as video / audio files and made available on the ECATS website following the event.

For speakers:
As a conference speaker, your contributions will be recorded and made available via the ECATS website as a record of your presentation. This will include an audio track of your voice, and if enabled, webcam images of you speaking. Additionally, please note that we can not avoid other using recording or copying presentations provided and information shared during this event.

General information on Data Protection law is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Conference | Programme | Committees | Presentations | Book of Abstracts | Guidelines | Ethics

As part of our move to an online conference, the ECATS community published a book of extended abstracts for the conference ahead of the online event. This is intended to encourage researchers and attendees at the conference to start their networking early.

ECATS Book of Abstracts Volume 1

More information on the 3rd ECATS conference scheduled on 13-15 Oct 2020 can be found using the navigation bar.

The ECATS conference will take place online 13-15 October 2020 as an open access event, please note that registration is required.

Conference | Programme | Committees | Venue | Book of abstracts | Registration | Guidelines | Ethics

Making aviation environmentally sustainable

13-15 October 2020, online

Building upon the success of the 1st ECATS Conference (Berlin 2013) and 2nd ECATS Conference (Athens 2016) this scientific conference ECATS2020 will give the opportunity to present state-of-the art research, review recent achievements and at the same time will provide a strategic perspective on future directions in environmentally sustainable aviation. The conference programme will present research in seven key areas of multi-disciplinary expertise allowing in-depth discussions and poster presentations.

• Airport Air Quality
• Alternative fuels for aviation
• Aviation climate impact and mitigation concepts
• Green flight – Climate optimal flight trajectory
• Propulsion Integration
• Cryogenic and electrofuels
• Future materials for aircraft
• Young researcher Swedish National Aeronautics Programme (NFFP)

 

Contact details
ECATS International Association Conference Office
c/o DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Oberpfaffenhofen 82334 Wessling, Germany

eMail: conference@ecats-network.eu
Fax: +49-8153-28-1841 (attn. ECATS)

During the EASN conference in Athens, 3-6 September 2019, a dedicated ECATS session took place, presenting recent results and concepts Forward regarding sustainable aviation. The session was chaired by Thrassos Panidis, former ECATS Executive Board member, University of Patras and well attended by experts on sustainable aviation.

From within the International Association working Group leaders will attend from “Climate and Aviation”, “Green Flight”, and “alternative fuels”. For a full list of individual presentations please check the conference programme (easnconference.eu).

It was good meeting you in Athens!

Innovation in European Aeronautics Research October 18 – 21, 2016 Porto, Portugal

In 2016, for the first time, the European Aeronautics Science Network will convene In Portugal. The 6th International Conference of EASN will be co-organised with the Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (INEGI) of the University of Porto (FEUP).

The 6th EASN International Conference is set to be the larger, broader and most comprehensive gathering of the Association. It is designed to be the year’s leading forum for discussion and exchange of information about state-of-the-art research and development activities in Aeronautics and Air Transport.

The conference will include Plenary Sessions by renowned speakers and Open Discussions with distinguished researchers from the industry and academia. It will also include Thematic Sessions housing the majority of current European aeronautics research programs and Technical Workshops where evolving ideas, technologies, products, services and processes will be discussed. In this respect, the Conference is expected to foster the cooperation and interaction between its participants on a multidisciplinary basis serving as a meeting for exchanging novel and innovative ideas for future research.

The 2016 EASN Conference will be a flagship event in dissemination of aeronautics research activities and our goal is to share high quality, current achievements and new upstream research ideas.

More information can be found at the conference website easnconference.eu