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Environmental science flies higher and wider

25 July 2000

A new and highly modified survey aircraft is the latest tool to help study our environment from the skies.

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is to lease a Dornier 228 to replace the Piper Navajo Chieftain that has given valiant service in earth observation for the past 16 years.

Because the new aeroplane can fly further and carry more equipment, it will extend the environmental research programmes supported by NERC beyond the usual land and freshwater studies. We will now be able to produce digital images of shelf seas to help monitor, for example, marine algal blooms. An entirely new range of observations will be possible in earth and atmospheric sciences; we can now study the Earth's gravity and its magnetic field and monitor pollution from ground level up to the stratosphere.

Access to the aircraft is the result of an agreement between NERC and the German Aerospace Research Centre, Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V (DLR). Both organisations participate in European Concerted Action Programmes aimed at increasing co-operation between researchers and ensuring efficient use of research aircraft across Europe.

The agreement between NERC and DLR is being finalised this week. The Memorandum of Understanding covers scientific co-operation between NERC and DLR, and includes the three-year lease of the Do228 to NERC on a non-commercial basis. The Do228 will be delivered to NERC in October 2000, and following trials, will be operational in January 2001.

NERC looks forward to an increase in collaboration with European colleagues in using this exciting new facility for environmental research, survey and monitoring.

Further information

Dr Monika Krautstrunk
DLR Flight Facility,Oberpfaffenhofen,
D-82234 Wessling,Germany
Tel: +49 (8153) 28 2986

NERC Airborne Remote Sensing Facility
Peter Purcell
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411649

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. NERC has in principle agreed with the DLR a three-year lease of an extensively-modified Dornier 228 survey and research aircraft. The highly-capable Do228, with three times the cabin volume and payload plus twice the range of the current NERC aircraft, will result in more effective operation of existing optical remote sensing equipment. In addition, the aircraft will also be able to undertake a much wider range of research tasks, including earth science applications such as gravimetry and magnetometry, and atmospheric science applications such as atmospheric sampling and pollution studies.

2. The agreement results from NERC and DLR participation in two EU- funded programmes intended to promote co-ordination and collaboration between European research organisations and facilities, improve utilisation of European airborne research platforms and to facilitate access to these facilities by European researchers.

3. The UK Natural Environment Research Council funds and carries out impartial scientific research in the sciences of the environment. NERC trains the next generation of independent environmental scientists.

4. The German Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V operates a range of experimental and survey aircraft in support of a variety of environmental and aerospace research activities, and runs a large electro-optical research department.

5. The Airborne Remote Sensing Facility (ARSF) is one of the services and facilities provided by NERC in support of the environmental research community, and was set up in 1985 in response to increasing demand by NERC-supported researchers for aerial imagery.

Press release: 14/00

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