European Facility For Airborne Research Nov. 21, 2024, 14:06
EUFAR2 Objectives
The current EUFAR project (2014-2018) encompasses the following activities:
Networking Activities under EUFAR2 (1.83 M€)
Constitutes a Strategic Advisory Committee made up of representatives from research institutions and industry, which provides the EUFAR Consortium with recommendations on EUFAR objectives, scientific priorities and long-term guidance on establishing EUFAR’s legal sustainable structure.
is the unified management structure facilitating transnational access to research aircraft and instruments by providing fully-funded flight hours.
evaluates the performance of the existing fleet, and the long-term development and harmonisation of the fleet.
aim to improve the scientific expertise in the field of airborne research to facilitate the transfer of expert knowledge to users, operators, and funding agencies, and to compile supplementary material to the EUFAR handbook on “Airborne Measurements for Environmental Research – Methods and Instruments”.
supports both market pull and technology push driven innovation, and aims to foster a culture whereby EUFAR experts and SMEs will closely interact and develop partnerships to transfer airborne research instruments, methodologies and software into new products.
provide training opportunities (theoretical and practical) in airborne atmospheric research, field campaigns and remote sensing of the Earth surface, with the aim to develop a community of young researchers.
aims to develop common protocols for airborne operators with recommendations on best practices and state-of-the-art software, and to develop and publish open source software toolboxes for higher-level data.
Will provide a centralised gateway to in situ and remote sensed airborne data, and improve access to and use of the data collected within EUFAR.
Will contribute to the improved access to and use of the infrastructures via the website, by elaborating new solutions for the EUFAR web portal providing easy access to up-to-date information on the European fleet of research aircraft, opportunities for users within the EUFAR fleet, and education and train opportunities offered by EUFAR; and improving the proposal-submission system and developing new tools to support collaborative and networking activities.
Joint Research Activities under EUFAR2 (991 k€)
aims to develop methodologies and tools for the integrated use of airborne hyperspectral imaging (HSI) data and airborne laser scanning (ALS) data in order to produce improved HSI and ALS products.
aims to develop robust calibration systems for the core gas-phase chemical measurements currently made on-board research aircraft. This activity aims to reduce the uncertainty in these key parameters, facilitate improved cross-platform research by ensuring that the measurement technologies are all tied to a common baseline, and make critical comparisons between numerical models and between different satellite observations.
EUFAR2 Project Presentation
The current EUFAR project covers a 4-year period (2014 – 2018) and is financed by the European Commission under its 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under grant agreement 312609. Following three previous contracts dating 2000, the current project is governed by a consortium of 24 European research organisations originating from 11 countries, including 12 research aircraft and instrument operators.