70 years of Atmospheric research flying timeline ... - Met Office

The BAe-146 aircraft made a range of radiation measurements, launched numerousdropsondes (specially designed sensors dropped from the aircraft, which fall to theground on small parachutes) and made in-situ measurements of cloud physics and tracegases. These were made while flying in the field of view of the satellite allowing the stateof the atmosphere and upwelling radiation to be characterised. This work allowed theaccuracy of satellite retrieval methods to be assessed over a range of surfaces, andhelped to establish the very high radiometric accuracy of the IASI instrument, and theretrieval of atmospheric properties such as temperature and humidity using this data.Assimilation of IASI radiances led to a marked positive impact on the Met Office’snumerical weather prediction (NWP) skill from 2007 onwards. Data from the JAIVExcampaign has been distributed to research groups across the world who use it as a testbed for developing novel and innovative satellite retrieval techniques.2008The BAe-146 detaches to Oberpfaffenhofen for the EUCAARI-LONGREX -(http://www.pa.op.dlr.de/aerosol/eucaari2008/) campaign to measure the properties ofEuropean aerosol.This was part of the ADIENT (link - http://www.reading.ac.uk/adient/) (Appraising theDirect Impacts of aErosol oN climaTe) project© Crown copyright 201234