HALO under EarthCARE in tandem flight – measurement flights from aircraft and satellite

Oberpfaffenhofen, 04.09.2024 – DLR

 

  • The HALO research aircraft from DLR has successfully completed its most demanding mission to date in terms of flying and science, conducting measurement flights over Cabo Verde to validate the EarthCARE satellite mission.
  • HALO's flights are conducted directly beneath the EarthCARE satellite to calibrate its instruments and enhance the accuracy of Earth observation data.
  • The collected data will contribute to a deeper understanding and improved prediction of climate patterns and weather dynamics. Following Cabo Verde, validation flights will continue in Barbados, and from November, in Germany, Europe and the Arctic region.
  • Focus: Aviation, Earth observation, climate

The HALO research aircraft from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has successfully completed the first phase of its most challenging mission to date, in terms of flying and science, over Cabo Verde. Since the beginning of August 2024, HALO (the High Altitude and Long Range research aircraft) has been flying close to the equator, measuring how tropical air masses and cloud systems behave at different altitudes, all in sync with the EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) Earth observation satellite. HALO flies precisely beneath the satellite, ensuring that the measurements from both the aircraft and satellite are directly comparable. The instruments on board the research aircraft use the same principles of measurement as the satellite. HALO's data helps to calibrate the instruments on board the satellite, optimising the data evaluation of the EarthCARE mission.

The validation flights for the EarthCARE satellite mission are led by the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics together with the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M). The PERCUSION (Persistent EarthCare underflight studies of the ITCZ and organized convection) validation mission is part of the overall ORCESTRA (Organized Convection and EarthCare Studies over the Tropical Atlantic) campaign, which is scientifically led by the MPI-M. The Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) and the Universities of Cologne, Leipzig and Hamburg are also involved in the flight campaign with funding from the German Research Foundation. The flights are coordinated with validation activities from the German Research Foundation (DFG), among others the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), the Forschungszentrum Jülich research centre and the Deutscher Wetterdienst national weather service. The HALO research aircraft is operated by the DLR Flight Experiments facility in Oberpfaffenhofen.

Read more abou the HALO mission PERCUSION via DLR: https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2024/halo-under-earthcare-in-tandem-flight-measurement-flights-from-aircraft-and-satellite

 

 

Preparing the instruments.
For each validation flight, the scientists check HALO's measuring instruments. This photo shows the team preparing the radiometer and flushing it with nitrogen. Several instruments are installed in the lower fuselage compartment, where they are precisely calibrated again before take-off. Photo: DLR

Tags
ORCESTRA EarthCARE PERCUSION HALO