A Review of NASA's 'Atmospheric Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft' Project

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The NRC Panel on the Atmospheric Effects of Aviation (PAEAN) was established to provide guidance to NASA's Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Program (AEAP) by evaluating the appropriateness of the program's research plan, appraising the project-sponsored results relative to the current state of scientific knowledge, identifying key scientific uncertainties, and suggesting research activities likely to reduce those uncertainties. Over the last few years, the panel has written periodic reviews of both the subsonic aviation (Subsonic Assessment-SASS) and the supersonic aviation (Atmospheric Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft-AESA) components of AEAP, including: An Interim Review of the Subsonic Assessment Project (1997); An Interim Assessment of AEAP's Emissions Characterization and Near-Field Interactions Elements (1997); An Interim Review of the AESA Project: Science and Progress (1998); Atmospheric Effects of aviation: A Review of NASA's Subsonic Assessment Project (1998). This report constitutes the final review of AESA and will be the last report written by this panel. The primary audience for these reports is the program managers and scientists affiliated with AEAP, although in some cases the topics discussed are of interest to a wider audience.