DLR Falcon 20 (D-CMET)

FAAM BAe-146 FAAM (G-LUXE)

SAFIRE Falcon 20 (F-GBTM)

EUCAARI-LONGREX is an aircraft field campaign to be conducted in May 2008 which is part of EUCAARI, the European integrated project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions. LONGREX stands for "LONG Range EXperiment", because it is the aim of this experiment to measure the aerosol distribution over Europe by airborne in-situ and remote sensing measurements on a rather large scale.

Aerosol particles in the atmosphere have direct (radiation related) and indirect (cloud related) effects on climate. Accurate modeling of climate requires accurate knowledge on aerosol properties and processes changing these properties. This is what the EUCAARI project is about - with a geographical focus on Europe. The EUCAARI-LONGREX aircraft experiment shall provide data on how aerosol properties change over Europe as a consequence of a many processes: ageing of aerosol particles during transport; particle formation and condensation onto exisiting particles from precursor gases originating from pollution and natural sources; uptake of primary aerosols from pollution and natural sources; cloud processes; exchange between polluted boundary layer and clean free troposphere.

There is a second aircraft field experiment running also in May 2008 dedicated specifically to study aerosol-cloud interaction. This campaign has a more regional focus and will be mainly performed in the Netherlands. This field campaign is called EUCAARI-IMPACT. Further information can be found on the EUCAARI-IMPACT homepage.

During EUCAARI-LONGREX two extensively equipped research aircrafts, the DLR Falcon 20 and the FAAM BAe-146 will be operated out of the airport of Oberpfaffenhofen (EDMO) in southern Germany. The aircraft will mainly fly West-East and North-South transects across Europe in order to follow the evolution of aerosol properties during air mass transport over Europe. The experiment will be set up on continental scale by using Both aircrafts will operate from the airport at the DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

The measurement period is May 6 until May 23, 2008.

During the last week of the measurement period the French SAFIRE Falcon 20 will join the EUCAARI-LONGREX mission flights.

The EUCAARI-LONGREX field campaign will be linked with AMAPUV, a small project with 5 flight hours for the DLR Falcon funded within the EUFAR TA (Transnational Access) program.