2008

Falcon aircraft observations improve the typhoon forecasts

The DLR research aircraft Falcon is stationed at the US Naval Facility Atsugi in Japan since 23 August. It performs observations to improve typhoon forecasts and to investigate the interaction of tropical storms with the midlatidute airflow. Together with two US research aircraft and one aircraft from Taiwan, the life cycle of a typhoon was documented by airborne observations over a period of nearly two weeks for the first time, from the early stage in the tropics until the transition to an extra-tropical system near Japan. Typhoon “Sinlaku” reached a peak intensity of category 4 before landfall in Taiwan where it caused severe flooding. In the following evolution, Sinlaku went along the Japanese East coast and over the base of the Falcon in Atsugi near Tokyo.

AirClim: an efficient tool for evaluation of climate impact of aircraft emissions

Volker Grewe and Andrea Stenke of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of DLR published "AirClim: an efficient tool for climate evaluation of aircraft technology". AirClim is a methodology to assess the climate impact of aircraft emissions for a variety of aviation scenarios over short and long time horizons. AirClim computes the global near surface temperature change induced by carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and line-shaped contrails from subsonic and supersonic aircraft.

Falcon investigates pollution outflow from the city of Dakar into desert dust layers

The DLR performs measurements of desert dust from the Sahara until mid of February 2008. This work is part of the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment SAMUM, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The measurements use the DLR research aircraft Falcon which operates from the Cape Verde Islands.

Protecting the Alps from traffic noise and air pollution

A European research project under the name of ALPNAP comes to a conclusion that helps to minimise noise and air pollution along main alpine traffic routes. The project was led by the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Institute for Atmospheric Physics. The findings will be presented to the public from 23rd to 25th January, 2008 at a conference in Innsbruck.