 |
| Figure 1. Flight routes of DLR Falcon during the volcanic ash mission in April/May 2010 [enlarge image] | |
Since April 19 altogether 17 flights were performed by the DLR Falcon research aircraft to survey and sample the emissions of the Eyjafjalla volcano on Iceland. The measurements were performed on demand of the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD, German Weather Service) and the Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung (BMVBS, Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development).
The flight track data in ascii format are available for download (see below at end).
A compilation of the flight tracks is shown in Figure 1. Flight track data in ascii format including timestamp (UTC), position data (longitude, latitude), ambient pressure, pressure altitude are available for download on this page. We invite the community to provide further observational data and model results for the general measurement area and/or the particular flight routes to the DLR mission PI (ulrich.schumann@dlr.de).
Table 1 lists information on the Falcon flights (including takeoff/landing times and a short mission objective).
Table 1. List of Falcon flights for the DLR volcanic ash missions in April/May 2010
| Date |
Flight ID |
Take-off time (UTC) |
Landing time (UTC) |
Mission objective |
| 19 April 2010 |
#100419a |
14:12:02
| 17:54:50 |
Aged ash plume over Germany & NL (air space in Europe largely closed) |
| 22 April 2010 |
#100422a |
14:14:14 |
15:35:09 |
Lidar survey over Germany |
|
#100422b |
17:12:55 |
20:29:30 |
Aged ash plume south of Norway (embedded in clouds) |
| 23 April 2010 |
#100423a |
11:45:56 |
14:57:46 |
Aged ash plume over Germany, Poland & Baltic Sea |
| 29 April 2010 |
#100429a |
12:00:10 |
14:09:06 |
Ferry flight (to Edinburgh) |
|
#100429b |
15:39:59 |
18:28:50 |
Flight to Iceland with lidar survey of ash plume and in-situ profiling at Keflavik airport |
| 1 May 2010 |
#100501a |
10:50:29 |
14:05:03 |
Lidar survey of fresh ash plume near volcano and in-situ profiling at Keflavik airport |
| 2 May 2010 |
#100502a |
12:58:36 |
16:17:57 |
Return flight with in-situ measurement in the top of the fresh plume over the North Atlantic |
| 3 May 2010 |
#100503a |
11:04:40 |
13:31:27 |
Ferry flight to Oberpfaffenhofen |
| 9 May 2010 |
#100509a |
14:26:52 |
18:01:24 |
Aged ash plume over Germany (Munich airport & air space closed for ~6 hours) |
| 13 May 2010 |
#100513a |
10:06:25 |
11:20:04 |
Ferry flight to Niederrhein |
|
#100513b |
12:44:26 |
15:49:47 |
Aged ash plume north of English Channel |
| 16 May 2010 |
#100516a |
09:11:17 |
11:07:31 |
Ferry flight to Newquay (UK) |
|
#100516b |
12:34:50 |
16:01:16 |
Aged ash plume over Irish Sea and northern England (UK air space partly closed) |
| 17 May 2010 |
#100517a |
10:38:47 |
13:29:50 |
Aged ash plumes over Germany, NL & North Sea |
|
#100517b |
14:36:54 |
17:57:00 |
Aged dense ash plume over North Sea, extensive in situ measurement |
| 18 May 2010 |
#100518a |
07:25:32 |
10:34:56 |
Aged ash plume survey over Germany & North Sea (German air space closure was under consideration) |
The instrumentation of the DLR Falcon is listed in Table 2.
Table 2. Falcon instrumentation for the DLR volcanic ash missions in April/May 2010
| Instrumentation |
Measured quantity |
PI |
|
Remote sensing instrument |
| 2-µm-Wind-Lidar |
Aerosol backscatter in the column below the aircraft |
Reitebuch, Rahm |
|
|
|
|
Aerosol in-situ instruments |
Multi-channel condensation
particle counter (3 unheated,
2 heated channels) |
integral number of ultrafine particles (0.005 < Dp < 2.5 µm) and non-volatile fraction |
Weinzierl, Minikin |
2-channel optical particle counter
(Grimm OPC 1.129) |
total & non-volatile size distribution (0.25 µm < Dp < 2.5 µm) |
|
| 3-λ-PSAP |
absorption coefficient at λ = 467, λ = 530 and λ = 660 nm |
|
PCASP-100X
aerosol spectrometer |
size distribution accumulation mode, dry state (0.15 µm < Dp < 3.0 µm) |
|
FSSP-300
aerosol spectrometer |
size distribution coarse mode, ambient state (1 µm < Dp < 30 µm) |
|
| 2D-C probe |
size distribution of very large particles, water droplets and ice-crystals (30 µm < Dp < 800 µm) |
Gayet |
| Impactor sampler |
chemical composition and shape of sub-2.5 µm particles |
Kandler |
| Giant particle collector GPaC |
chemical composition in the coarse mode (operated only for selected sequences) |
Kandler |
|
|
|
|
Trace gas in situ instruments |
| SO2 fluorescence detector |
SO2 mixing ratio |
Schlager |
| O3 detector (UV absorption) |
O3 mixing ratio |
|
| CO detector (vacuum UV) |
CO mixing ratio |
|
|
|
|
|
Meteorological data |
| Falcon standard instrumentation |
position, temperature, pressure, humidity, wind |
Giez |
| CR-2 dewpoint hygrometer |
dew point, humidity |
Voigt |
PCASP-100X, FSSP-300, 2 D-C, and GPaC instruments were mounted under the wings of the aircraft. All other instruments are operated in the cabin. Sample air inlets are mounted in the fuselage on the top of the aircraft. The lidar was downward looking.
Data from the instruments listed in Table 2 are available for all flights with following exceptions: Impactor sampling and SO2 detector were not flown on the first flight. The dewpoint hygrometer was only flown between April 22 and May 3, 2010. The GPaC instrument sampled particles successfully only on May 2. The 2D-C probe was added for all flights from April 29 onwards.
Downloads
CMET_positionsfiles.zip (1.9 MByte; 17 zipped ascii files with flight track of DLR Falcon)