European Facility For Airborne Research

EUFAR was created and launched in 2000, with the first EUFAR contract funded by the EC's 5th framework programme (FP5) for research, technological development and demonstration activities.

EUFAR FP5 (2000 - 2004) aims at co-ordinating the operations of the European fleet of instrumented aircraft in the field of environmental research in the atmospheric, marine, terrestrial and earth sciences (work-package WP1), in order to facilitate the access of the scientific users to the fleet (WP2), to improve the cost/effectiveness of the infrastructures, as well as the quality of the service (WP3), and finally to evaluate the scientific demand in terms of instrumented aircraft and prepare a proposal for a large scale facility in Europe (WP4).

The class of research infrastructure concerned by the Network is a fleet of aircraft that have been specifically modified and instrumented for research, as well as the accompanying facilities that are needed for the on-board installation of new instruments, instrument calibration, logistical support to the users for the preparation of a field experiment and for conducting the flights during the campaign, maintenance and servicing of a centralised acquisition system, facilities for data processing, validation and distribution to the users.

Scientific users of the fleet and experts in airborne instrumentation will be invited to participate to the activities of the Network. In particular, information will be largely distributed to potential users from countries which are not already operating aircraft facilities. Scientific user refers to an engineer or scientist who needs the support of an instrumented aircraft for conducting research in environmental sciences such as atmospheric dynamics, cloud microphysics, atmospheric chemistry, remote sensing of soil and atmosphere, atmospheric radiative transfer, oceanography, and earth sciences. Expert in airborne instrumentation refers to an engineer or scientist who has developed specific expertise in airborne instrumentation design and development, and/or instrument installation, including airflow disturbance simulation, and/or data acquisition, and/or data processing. Scientific users and experts generally belong to either an aircraft operator institute, to a national scientific institute, or to the industry. Experts are often active scientific users of the research aircraft. A particular effort will be dedicated to opening the Network to industries which are actively involved in the development of instrumentation in the field of aircraft icing, turbulence, and monitoring of the environment.

The network is composed of 8 major European research aircraft operators, and the European Science Foundation through its Standing Committee for Life and Environmental Sciences. Partner one is the co-ordinator of the Network, the others are members of the network: