High-Altitude Research Aircraft Explores Asian Monsoon
Jülich measuring instruments on board
Jülich, 31 July 2017 – The Asian monsoon is one of our planet’s most dynamic, high-energy weather systems. For the first time, scientists from all over Europe are examining the upper levels of the monsoon system in Nepal. They are hoping that the results will help them to understand the global climate system better. A key part of these investigations is a measurement campaign headed by Forschungszentrum Jülich with the high-altitude research aircraft M55 Geophysica. It will fly measuring instruments, including five of the Jülich experimentalists’ highly specialized instruments, to altitudes of up to 20 kilometres. The instruments will record the first-ever high-resolution distributions of various trace gases at the upper edge of the monsoon circulation. The measurement campaign is part of the StratoClim project, which is coordinated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).