The Earth System Model Validation (ESMVal) field experiment with the High Altitude
and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO)
was conducted during 10-24 September 2012 in close cooperation with the
HALO TACTS mission (Jurkat et al., 2014;
Vogel et al., 2015;
Müller et al., 2016).
HALO flight track during ESMVal, with specific areas of interest (blue) and stopovers.
Dives are marked red. Background contours show
EMAC simulated NOy mixing ratios.
During the 65 HALO flight hours of the ESMVal campaign, trace gas distributions were
sampled from the ground to a maximum altitude of 15.3 km along the following route:
Oberpfaffenhofen (Germany) - Sal (Cape Verde) - Cape Town (South Africa) -
boundary of Antarctica - Cape Town - Male (Maledives) - Larnaca (Cyprus) - Oberpfaffenhofen -
Spitzbergen (Norway) - Oberpfaffenhofen. The goal was to gather in-situ observations
for the evaluation of Earth system models and to improve process understanding.
Specific areas of interest included regions impacted by deep convection, lightning and
biomass burning in West- and South Africa, anthropogenic pollution in Europe and the
Mediterranean, the northern and southern polar regions, and the North African and Asian
monsoons.
The Asian summer monsoon anticyclone (ASMA) was transected south to north during
the flight from Male to Larnaca on 18 September 2012. HALO was flying mostly in the
upper troposphere, but also dived into the lower troposphere over Oman.
Data availability
In-situ measurements of CFC12, CH2BrCl, CH3Br, CH4, CO, CO2, H1202, H1211, H1301, H2402, H2O,
HCl, HNO3, N2O, NO, NOy, O3, PAN, SF6, SO2 and various dynamic variables along the HALO
flight track are available from the HALO database.
Please register to get access.
