The A-LIFE field experiment in the Eastern Mediterannean
| # | Flight | Take-off [UTC] | Landing [UTC] | Objective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 28.03.2017 | 09:00:47 Oberpfaff. (DE) | 11:57:18 Oberpfaff. (DE) | Test flight #1; dust sampling over France and Germany |
| 02* | 31.03.2017 | 07:35:42 Oberpfaff. (DE) | 10:43:59 Oberpfaff. (DE) | Test flight #2; comparison of pollution levels over two major European cities (Munich, Vienna) in contrast with the tropospheric background site mount Sonnblick GAW Observatory |
| 03 | 03.04.2017 | 06:08:30 Oberpfaff. (DE) | 09:01:59 Cagliari (IT) | Transfer flight Oberpfaffenhofen – Cagliari; in‐situ profiling over mount Sonnblick GAW Observatory, Genua and Sardinia (aged dust) |
| 04* | 03.04.2017 | 12:38:03 Cagliari (IT) | 15:49:47 Paphos (CY) | Transfer flight Cagliari – Paphos; dust ahead of a low -pressure system; in‐situ profiling near Crete |
| 05 | 05.04.2017 | 08:50:01 Paphos (CY) | 12:08:09 Paphos (CY) | Middle East/Arabian dust, cloud‐free conditions |
| 06 | 06.04.2017 | 04:30:27 Paphos (CY) | 08:05:57 Paphos (CY) | Middle East/Arabian (low altitudes) & Saharan dust (higher altitudes), cloud‐free conditions |
| 07 | 11.04.2017 | 05:04:10 Paphos (CY) | 08:56:45 Paphos (CY) | Dust in the Cyprus area before trough passage; „pattern cloud“; heavily polluted atmosphere at 2000ft over the sea south of Cyprus |
| 08 | 11.04.2017 | 09:56:35 Paphos (CY) | 12:59:01 Paphos (CY) | Dust in the Cyprus area before trough passage |
| 09 | 13.04.2017 | 08:27:31 Paphos (CY) | 11:46:42 Paphos (CY) | Dust embedded in clouds, ice formation at high temps; heavy pollution at low altitudes over the sea south of Cyprus; polluted dust down to the ground |
| 10 | 14.04.2017 | 04:07:35 Paphos (CY) | 07:58:23 Heraklion (GR) | Dust and pollution sampling over Crete; lidar flight Cyprus – Crete; in‐situ profiling over Finokalia before landing; indications for vertical mixing inside the dust layer; dust gradient with dust surge east of Crete |
| 11 | 14.04.2017 | 09:03:58 Heraklion (GR) | 12:24:40 Paphos (CY) | Dust and pollution sampling over Crete; in‐situ & lidar flight with W‐E profiling over Finokalia; dust gradient with dust surge east of Crete |
| 12* | 19.04.2017 | 09:58:52 Paphos (CY) | 13:56:52 Malta (MT) | Beginning of a Saharan dust outbreak which moved eastwards; lidar flight Cyprus – Malta with vertical in‐situ profiling in the Malta region |
| 13* | 19.04.2017 | 15:10:26 Malta (MT) | 19:06:37 Paphos (CY) | Beginning of a Saharan dust outbreak which moved eastwards; in‐situ profiling after take‐off in Malta; chasing of dust‐impacted clouds near Malta |
| 14* | 20.04.2017 | 10:06:17 Paphos (CY) | 13:34:59 Heraklion (GR) | Cyprus – Crete: maximum of the Saharan dust outbreak; coordinated measurements with Crete |
| 15 | 20.04.2017 | 14:40:23 Heraklion (GR) | 18:33:30 Paphos (CY) | Crete – Cyprus: maximum of the Saharan dust outbreak, chasing of dust-impacted clouds near/over Crete in the cloud top layer; aerosol‐cloud interaction |
| 16 | 21.04.2017 | 11:48:30 Paphos (CY) | 16:01:13 Paphos (CY) | Dust sampling west and south‐west of Cyprus: end of Saharan dust outbreak |
| 17 | 22.04.2017 | 06:07:01 Paphos (CY) | 09:26:15 Paphos (CY) | Dust sampling south of Cyprus: end of Saharan dust outbreak |
| 18 | 25.04.2017 | 08:03:40 Paphos (CY) | 10:20:25 Paphos (CY) | Sampling of pollution from Turkey and the Black Sea west and north‐west of Cyprus |
| 19 | 26.07.2017 | 12:06:05 Paphos (CY) | 14:39:49 Paphos (CY) | Arabian and Sahran dust outbreak; Saharan dust mainly in the western part of the flight pattern, Arabian dust in the south‐eastern part of the flight pattern |
| 20 | 27.04.2017 | 07:13:15 Paphos (CY) | 10:18:11 Paphos (CY) | Arabian and Sahran dust outbreak (same flight pattern as on the day before); boundary of Arabian dust between Paphos and Limassol during take‐off |
| 21* | 29.04.2017 | 07:06:29 Paphos (CY) | 10:34:11 Heraklion (GR) | Transfer flight Cyprus – Crete; Saharan dust outbreak, coordinated measurements with Crete |
| 22 | 29.04.2017 | 11:42:25 Heraklion (GR) | 14:48:26 Oberpfaff. (DE) | Transfer flight Crete – Oberpfaffenhofen; flight on the back side of a low-pressure system |
* Flights with CALIPSO overpasses
Funding:
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 640458 (A‐LIFE). In addition, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) provided funding for a significant amount of flight hours and aircraft allocation days for the A-LIFE aircraft field experiment. Furthermore, two EUFAR projects were clustered with A‐LIFE and provided funding for 16 flight hours. Moreover, various groups participated in the A‐LIFE field experiment on their own funding.
Partners:
A‐LIFE involves partners from several European countries and the U.S. including the University of Vienna (UNIVIE, Austria), the German Aerospace Center (DLR, Germany), Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS, Germany), Ludwig‐ Maximilians‐Universität (LMU, Germany), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Boku, Vienna, Austria), Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), University of Valladolid (Spain), EnviTech (Budapest, Hungary), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, USA), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany), TU Vienna (TU Wien, Austria), Austrian Weather Service (ZAMG, Austria), National Observatory of Athens (NOA, Greece), University of Crete (Greece), Cyprus University of Technology (Cyprus), University of Hertfordshire (UK), The Cyprus Institute (Cyprus), Institute of Physics Belgrade (Serbia).
We would like to thank EDT Hangar Services for hosting us during the A‐LIFE field phase in Paphos (Cyprus).