European Facility For Airborne Research

Strategy & European Integration

• Significant progress towards constitution of legal sustainable entity for EUFAR. The legal form to be established is an International non-profit Association under Belgian law (AISBL), so far 12 partners are on board and its final constitution is expected in 2017;
• Improved links with other EU Research Infrastructures (IAGOS, ACTRIS, ENVRIplus) & US research aircraft community on topics of interest.
• Preparation and organisaton of EUFAR's 2nd International Conference on Airborne Research for the Environment (ICARE 2017) to be held at the German Aerospace Research Centre (DLR) in July.

 Transnational & Open Access Coordination

• So far, EUFAR has coordinated 20 research flight campaigns, funding 225.25 fully-funded flight hours out of a planned total of 38 projects (approximately 430 flight hours). To view the research projects funded and supported by EUFAR, click here;
• Successful clustering of EUFAR-funded flight campaigns with multinational campaigns such as DACCIWA and ICEX-D. 

Future of the Fleet

• Launch of EUFAR user needs survey in Nov. 2014 to evaluate the future needs of the airborne research community. Publication of survey results published on the website;
• Report to the EUFAR consortium partners provided on the availability of stratospheric and HPLE platforms, and on progress of UAS platforms for Earth science. Click here, for more information.

Expert Working Groups

There are currently 13 thematic expert working groups that meet regularly to address technical and scientific issues specific to airborne measurements, through specialised workshops, with a view to exchange knowledge and promote best practices in airborne research.  EUFAR organised and supported expert workshops on the following topics:

• Airborne Laser Scanning software (Vienna, Nov 2014);
• Certification and Operations (Amsterdam, Sept 2015 & Athens, Feb 2016);
• Technology Transfer to select promising measurement/instrument technologies developed within EUFAR to present to industry players (Frankfurt, Feb 2016);
• Data Processing, Analysis & Presentation of Software of Cloud Probes (Manchester, July 2016);
• Hyperspectral remote sensing for soil applications (Potsdam, September 2016)
• Atmospheric Correction of Remote Sensing Data (Berlin, October 2016)
• Hyperspectral Imaging from UAVs – Applications in Precision Farming (Milan, December 2016).

EUFAR-led Research Activities

HYLIGHT- Integration of airborne laser-scanning and hyperspectral imaging to improve image processing

• Development of Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) and Detailed Processing Model (DPM) for improved HSI processing using ALS and improved ALS processing using HSI;
• 13 out of an expected 14 tools have been prototyped, tested and developed by the HYLIGHT working group. To access the tools, click here;
• Chapter dedicated to HYLIGHT has been finalised and submitted to the European Commission. This chapter will be made available as supplementary online material to the EUFAR Handbook;
• 3 peer reviewed publications and 2 conference proceeding published.

 

TGOE - Traceability in Gas-phase Observations in EUFAR

• Development and characterisation of transportable calibration standards for aircraft instruments for range of trace species (e.g. major reactive nitrogen species, climate gases & ozone…);
• On-going sampling and analysis of volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere;
• Portable and traceable calibration sources for range of trace species;
• Ground and in-flight cross calibration checks between different platforms/instruments carried out during a number of flight campaigns (e.g. DACCIWA);
• Development of closer links with other related environmental research infrastructures (ACTRIS, IAGOS, NASA, WMO/GAW).
  
  

ALIDS  –Airborne Laser Interferometric Drop Size

In November 2015, one of the scientists, working for CNRS, involved in the research team that worked on the conception, design and development of the ALIDS probe received a prize during the Normandie AeroEspace Tech Day. The ALIDS probe is an airborne spectrometer used to characterise the droplet size in clouds in the range of 20 μm to 200 μm developed and tested during the previous EUFAR contract under the leadership of IRSN. The probe has been selected as one of the promising innovations to be included in EUFAR’s technology transfer activity. Click here, for more information. 

Publications

Scientific publications are continuously collected and made accessible via the website from EUFAR supported flight campaigns.  To access these publications, click here.

Technology Transfer

• Selection of 12 promising technologies developed by research teams associated with EUFAR to be presented to industry players with the aim of developing partnerships for upgrading airborne research instruments, methodologies and software into innovative and useful products. The living booklet of technologies can be accessed here;
• Development of a living document to serve as a guiding framework for scientists on how to transfer and market innovative technologies, manage intellectual property rights, and essentially interact and collaborate with industry partners. For more information, click here. 

Education & Training

10-day summer school on Spectrometry of a Wetland And Modelling of Photosynthesis with Hyperspectral Airborne Reflectance and Fluorescence (SWAMP), in Obrzycko-Rzecin, Poland, July 2016. For more information, and to access the presentations and educational material, click here.

Standards & Protocols

• Publication of the following documents (to be continually updated):
  o Review on existing standards and compatibility check with international standards
  o Best practices for airborne research measurements
• Continual development set of tools dedicated to the processing of in-situ data (EGADS) and the creation of INSPIRE compliant metadata for in-situ and hyperspectral data (with new versions of EMC and ASMM) freely accessible via the EUFAR website;
• Collaboration with ENVRIPlus on the implementation of its reference model and involvement in ENVRI community. For more information, click here.

Data Archive

• The archive currently provides links to 162 flights (in­cluding auxiliary data) for 57 EUFAR funded research projects (+2TB) plus links to a further 9.3TB of ARSF and FAAM flights. Flight data from EUFAR supported research campaigns contin­ue to arrive and be ingested as they become available. To access the archive, click here;
• Development and implementation of EUFAR Flight Finder tool to aid data discovery in EUFAR archive.
  
  

E-communication

• Launch of brand new EUFAR website in November 2015 (easier navigation and browsing, more informative and attractive, with its new design and user friendly functionalities;
• News articles published regularly on website;
• Regular posting on Twitter group @EUFAR_Science;
• Quarterly release of EUFAR newsletter issues, available here.