Abstract.

Aviation emissions impact both air quality and climate. Using a coupled tropospheric chemistry-aerosol microphysics model we investigate the effects of varying aviation fuel sulfur content (FSC) on premature mortality from long-term exposure to aviation-sourced PM_2.5 (particulate matter with a dry diameter of <  2.5 µm) and on the global radiation budget due to changes in aerosol and tropospheric ozone. We estimate that present-day non-CO₂ aviation emissions with a typical FSC of 600 ppm result in ∼  3600 [95 % CI: 1310–5890] annual premature mortalities globally due to increases in cases of cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer, resulting from increased surface PM_2.5 concentrations. We quantify the global annual mean combined radiative effect (RE_comb) of non-CO₂ aviation emissions as −13.3 mW m⁻²; from increases in aerosols (direct radiative effect and cloud albedo effect) and tropospheric ozone.

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