Lufthansa Group has equipped a third aircraft with a climate measuring instrument. Based on its partnership with the Jülich Research Centre, it will continue to collect atmospheric data for climate research with the measuring system of the European project IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System).
The new device was installed on the Airbus A330-300 with registration D-AIKE, currently part of the Eurowings Discover fleet. The aircraft, which operates regular routes between Europe and North America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Indian Ocean, will allow for expanded data collection.
For the past seven years, the company has been using two other aircraft equipped with this technology on long-haul flights. In 2011, a Lufthansa aircraft became the first to be fitted with the MOZAIC measurement system, the predecessor of the current one. Until 2014, a total of two airplanes equipped with this solution recorded weather data.
In 2015, the equipment was replaced by the IAGOS system, which has been fully operational on three of the company’s aircraft since then.
How the IAGOS measuring instrument works
The system is permanently installed under the cockpit of the aircraft. From there, a short connection links it to two measuring probes installed in the airframe, which are in permanent contact with the outside air.
After each flight, the recorded information is automatically transmitted to the central database of the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) research centre in Toulouse, France. All results are freely accessible for research purposes. They are currently used by some 300 organisations around the world.
From these data, researchers obtain information on climate evolution, atmospheric composition and long-term changes. This knowledge is then used to optimise climate models and improve weather forecasts.
«We are proud to now be able to support the IAGOS project with a third long-haul aircraft», commented Christina Foerster, responsible for Brand and Sustainability at Lufthansa Group. «Over the past thirty years, the data collected with our aircraft has contributed significantly to building one of the world’s most comprehensive data sets of ozone and water vapor content in the atmosphere», she emphasised.
«Thanks to the long-standing support of the Lufthansa Group, IAGOS has been able to develop into a research infrastructure of international standing and occupies a central place in the global system for observing the atmosphere», said Andreas Petzold, coordinator of IAGOS Germany. «We hope that our measurements will also help to reduce the climate impact of air traffic in the future», he added.
See also: Eurowings Discover started to replace Lufthansa’s operations in Canada and United States
