An ultralight aircraft for research in the boundary layer and the lower free troposphere is operated as a mobile platform for three dimensional investigations on a regional scale. The aircraft is the smallest environmental research aircraft (SERA) in the European Fleet for Airborne Research (http://www.eufar.net/). It is used for a variety of research projects covering the range from vertical distributions of aerosols, trace gases and radiation to regional scale studies of the trace gas exchange between biosphere and atmosphere, distributions of nucleation mode particles and plume studies of city plume compounds. The aircraft carries a scientific payload of ~ 50 kg up to a maximum altitude of 4500 m above sea level. It is flying with approximately 25 m/sec with a maximum endurance of 5 hours. Though small, slow and limited to visual flying rules under suitable weather conditions it was employed already in large international research campaigns in Europe from northern Finland to southern Italy and worldwide, COPS ( MILAGRO, Mexico (http://mce2.org/trailer.html) and MAGIM, China (http://www.magim.net/).
Contact: Wolfgang Junkermann