Which climate effects do clouds have? Under what conditions
do they warm or cool the atmosphere? Today, after more than five years of
preparation, the specially equipped research aircraft HALO (High Altitude and
Long Range Research Aircraft) takes off for its first measurement flight in
atmospheric research. Prof. Bjorn Stevens and Dr. Lutz Hirsch from the Max
Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) leave Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany for
a ten-hour flight to Barbados. They will operate numerous measuring instruments
on board HALO on behalf of the German atmospheric research: "A day we have
eagerly awaited", says Stevens. "It is the first major mission to
exploit the novel capabilities of HALO to measure vertical profiles of all
components of atmospheric water - like vapor, liquid and ice, in both cloud and
precipitation forms, as well as the aerosol particles upon which cloud droplets
form - from a high altitude. A new era of airborne atmospheric research."
The aircraft, equipped with a large amount of advanced technology, is an
initiative by German climate and environmental research institutions (see
below) and is operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).