IAGOS-CARIBIC

This instrumented container is installed about 6-10 times per year in the Lufthansa airbus A340-600 and conducts 4 consecutive flights before returning to KIT. The CARIBIC-AMS is indicated by the red box. Picture: F. Obersteiner, KIT.

This instrumented container is installed about 6-10 times per year in the Lufthansa airbus A340-600 and conducts 4 consecutive flights before returning to KIT. The CARIBIC-AMS is indicated by the red box. Picture: F. Obersteiner, KIT.

Together with TROPOS we operate a fully automated aerosol mass spectrometer in the IAGOS-CARIBIC container during routine passenger flights that are used to measure atmospheric composition. CARIBIC is the acronym for Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrumented Container. It is an infrastructure that is part of IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System). For more information on the IAGOS-CARIBIC project please visit the the CARIBIC web site.

For 6 -10 flight sequences per year, the instrumented container is installed at Munich airport into a Lufthansa airbus A340-600. A flight sequence typically consists of four consecutive flights, e.g. Munich - Los Angeles, Los Angeles - Munich, Munich - Shanghai, Shanghai - Munich. All instruments have to work fully automated because no operator is on board and no remote control is possible. After several years of development and testing, the CARIBIC-AMS started routine operation in October 2018.

Project partners:
TROPOS (M. Hermann, A. Wiedensohler)
KIT (A. Zahn, H. Bönisch, F. Obersteiner, T. Gehrlein)
+ the whole CARIBIC team

Instrument:
CARIBIC-AMS

People involved:
J. Schneider, C. Schulz, A. Ludwig, F. Rubach