WP 1
WP 2
WP 3
WP 4
WP 5
WP 6

WP2 – In-Flight Measurements of Aircraft Aerosol Effects on High and Low Clouds

Work Packages

By collecting unique, high-quality atmospheric data from research flights, WP2 will improve our understanding of how aircraft emissions affect both contrails and natural clouds. These insights will refine climate models and help quantify the non-CO2 effects of aviation, enabling more accurate future policy and mitigation strategies.

Goal: Collect new data on how airplane emissions affect clouds, both high (like contrail cirrus) and low ones.

How:

  • Use the research aircraft HALO for specialized flights.
  • Measure tiny particles, gases, humidity, and ice crystals in and around contrails.
  • Compare real measurements to weather forecasts.
  • Improve global climate models with this data.

Why: To understand how aviation changes cloud properties — something that affects global climate but is still poorly understood.

Sampling strategy

Contrail detection from aircraft

Key Technical activities:

  1. Aircraft Preparation and Instrumentation
    Development of the HALO Aerocloud mission payload, adapted from previous campaigns (e.g., CIRRUS-HL), with upgraded instrumentation capable of detecting sub-7 nm particles (vPM, nvPM) and cloud properties (Task 2.1).
  2. Flight Operations and Data Collection
    Execution of 4 dedicated research flights in 2027 using the HALO aircraft. Instrumentation will measure aerosol composition, humidity, trace gases, and ice crystal properties in contrails and cirrus clouds. Preliminary and final datasets will be published (Task 2.2).
  3. Scientific Data Analysis
    Investigation of how emitted particles (including lubrication oil and fuel components) influence contrail and cirrus properties. Evaluation of relative humidity profiles and ice supersaturated regions (ISSRs) using lidar and in-situ data, and comparison with numerical weather prediction (NWP) outputs (Task 2.3).
  4. Modeling Support and Evaluation
    Use of the global EMAC-MADE3 aerosol-climate model     to support flight planning, simulate plume evolution, and assess how sulfur and black carbon emissions affect cloud radiative properties. Model refinement will be informed by the campaign data (Task 2.4).

Partners involved: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPI, Lead), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Goethe University Frankfurt (GUF), National Institute for Aerospace Research, Romania (INCAS)