Aircraft emissions can pose a health threat by degrading air quality. The actual pollution footprint of aircraft is however not well understood. This research therefore explores the potential of performing near-runway measurements with low-cost sensor nodes to analyse the plume c
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Aircraft emissions can pose a health threat by degrading air quality. The actual pollution footprint of aircraft is however not well understood. This research therefore explores the potential of performing near-runway measurements with low-cost sensor nodes to analyse the plume composition and pollutant contribution of individual aircraft. The results showed significant differences in pollutant concentrations between departing- and landing aircraft and among species. The majority of CO plumes of landing aircraft and most NO and NO2 plumes of departures could be analysed while SO2 did not yield meaningful signals. Analysis revealed the cumulative NOx plume concentration of departures to be 3.5 times higher for large aircraft than for medium-sized ones, which could not be observed in terms of CO for landing aircraft. Between sensor nodes the cumulative plume concentrations differed ~8 - 37%. The results of this work demonstrate the use of low-cost sensors for better understanding the emissions footprint of individual aircraft.