Instrumentation on commercial aircraft for monitoring the atmospheric composition on a global scale: the IAGOS system, technical overview of ozone and carbon monoxide measurements

Philippe Nédélec; Romain Blot; Damien Boulanger; Gilles Athier; Jean-Marc Cousin; Benoit Gautron; Andreas Petzold; Andreas Volz-Thomas; Valérie Thouret

doi:10.3402/tellusb.v67.27791

Instrumentation on commercial aircraft for monitoring the atmospheric composition on a global scale: the IAGOS system, technical overview of ozone and carbon monoxide measurements

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

Volume 67 (2015): Issue 1

By: Philippe Nédélec, Romain Blot, Damien Boulanger, Gilles Athier, Jean-Marc Cousin, Benoit Gautron, Andreas Petzold, Andreas Volz-Thomas and Valérie Thouret

Open Access

|Jan 2015

Abstract

This article presents the In-service Aircraft of a Global Observing System (IAGOS) developed for operations on commercial long-range Airbus aircraft (A330/A340) for monitoring the atmospheric composition. IAGOS is the continuation of the former Measurement of OZone and water vapour on Airbus In-service airCraft (MOZAIC) programme (1994–2014) with five aircraft operated by European airlines over 20 yr. MOZAIC has provided unique scientific database used worldwide by the scientific community. In continuation of MOZAIC, IAGOS aims to equip a fleet up to 20 aircraft around the world and for operations over decades. IAGOS started in July 2011 with the first instruments installed aboard a Lufthansa A340-300, and a total of six aircraft are already in operation. We present the technical aircraft system concept, with basic instruments for O₃, CO, water vapour and clouds; and optional instruments for measuring either NO_y, NO_x, aerosols or CO₂/CH₄. In this article, we focus on the O₃ and CO instrumentation while other measurements are or will be described in specific papers. O₃ and CO are measured by optimised but well-known methods such as UV absorption and IR correlation, respectively. We describe the data processing/validation and the data quality control for O₃ and CO. Using the first two overlapping years of MOZAIC/IAGOS, we conclude that IAGOS can be considered as the continuation of MOZAIC with the same data quality of O₃ and CO measurements.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v67.27791 | Journal eISSN: 1600-0889

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Language: English

Page range: 27791 - 27791

Submitted on: Mar 6, 2015

Accepted on: May 29, 2015

Published on: Jan 1, 2015

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

IAGOS,

commercial aircraft,

ozone,

carbon monoxide,

instrumentation

© 2015 Philippe Nédélec, Romain Blot, Damien Boulanger, Gilles Athier, Jean-Marc Cousin, Benoit Gautron, Andreas Petzold, Andreas Volz-Thomas, Valérie Thouret, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 67 (2015): Issue 1