Research Aircraft
Atmospheric Measurement Facilities
In situ Earth Observatories
Specific flight missions for cadastral mapping and urban thermography
Customized flights in non-icing conditions with onboard meteorological equipment providing measurements of aerosols and cloud particles (droplets or ice crystals).
Custom flights for research purposes with the topographical lidar resulting in georeferenced cloud points, colorised cloud points, digital terrain models or other processed products.
- Thermal resolution of 0.05K - Uncooled microbolometer FPA-detector with 640X480 pixels; - Temperature operating range -40°C up to 120°C; - Autonomy for storage unit up to 36 flight hours; Applications: capture of loss of heat in populated areas, industrial plants, pipelines and power lines; reduction of CO2 emissions; flow measurement of streams and rivers; forest fire warning system; monitoring volcanoes; animal tracking; search and rescue operations; support of all LiDAR applications.
Mounted on the left wingtip in lieu of the lidar pod. It provides the following data: - Aerosol particle and cloud hydrometeor size distributions from 0.51 to 50 µm - Precipitation size distributions from 25 µm to 1550 µm - Particle optical properties (refractive index) - Particle shape assessments (discrimination between water and ice) - Liquid water content from 0.01 to 3 g/m3 - Aircraft velocity - Atmospheric temperature and pressure Applications: cloud particle research; climate studies; weather modification; contrails and contrail-induced cirrus; aircraft icing, cloud chambers;
Mounted on the right wing tip, the Hawkeye assembly provides important information on ice crystals and water droplets. Retrieved data: liquid water content, particle concentration, particle size distribution, effective diameter, extinction, high-resolution (≈2.3 micron pixel size) digital images of sampled particles. Applications: crystal geometry; particle concentrations; 3D and 2D cloud particle imaging; ice water content in clouds;
A full waveform Riegl Q680i topogaphical LIDAR mounted on the left wingtip of the aircraft in a custom pod together with GPS and inertial navigation systems. Its main features are: - Full waveform analysis for unlimited number of target echoes - Multiple-time-around (MTA) processing - High laser pulse repetition rates up to 400 kHz - Up to 266 000 measurements/sec on the ground - High ranging accuracy up to 20 mm - High scan speed up to 200 lines/s - Wide scan field of view up to 60° - Parallel scan lines - Interface for smooth integration of GPS Applications: city modelling; agriculture; forestry; monitoring landslides; corridor mapping; mapping of lakes & river banks; topography & mining.
