How The Pandemic Creates A Chance To Track Airplane Air Pollution

With air traffic down dramatically because of the pandemic, researchers at Georgia Tech, with support from NASA, are using this time as a sort of natural experiment.

David Goldman / Associated Press

Like cars and trucks, airplanes release carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change and other pollutants that affect people’s health.

An opportunity has opened up to learn more about those emissions from planes. With air traffic down dramatically because of the pandemic, researchers at Georgia Tech, with support from NASA, are using this time as a sort of natural experiment.

“The airport has always been a hotspot,” said Jen Kaiser, an assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Tech. “It’s always been aspirational for me to go out there and start monitoring.”