EMeRGe-Asia

At least up to now this was the longest measurement flight, 9 hours and 23 minutes. It lead us to the coast of Japan where we measured pollution from Japan and older emissions from the Yangtse region. On the way to Japan we flew at high altitude where we encountered an air mass mixed down from the stratosphere, with high ozone values. At the end we flew low over Taipeh and the west coast of Taiwan . Taipeh Power plant on west coast of Taiwan The happy mission PI after the flight.

We had a day off yesterday and went by car to the mountains, to the Alishan National Park. It was very nice so see some nature, as a contrast to the daily routine of hotel, airport, hotel, airport... On our way (more than 2 hours drive) we visited some temples and the "Fire and Water Spring", where natural gas exits from a water spring, and its said the gas burns since 300 years. A beautiful temple. The fire and water spring. Cherry blossom. One of the "giant trees", this one is 2000 year old. The view on the clouds from the mountains (2100 m) is spectacular! Today (28.03.2018) we had another measurement flight, again towards the Philippines.

Sorry, I didn't post any news, but that's because we are busy flying every other day. So one more flight on the 24th and one on the 26th. Today I was mission PI. The flight was the longest up to now, 9 hours and 3 minutes. And this tight schedule will continue! Next flights are planned for 30.03., 01.04., 03.04. and maybe 05.04. But if that's possible remains to be seen, weather and instruments might cross our plans. Tainan City short after take-off on 26.03.2018 View onto the top of HALO and the gas and aerosol inlets. Discussing the successful flight (24.03.2018).

...is obviously not what we are doing here. But one of my students (co-supervised by P. Hoor of University Mainz) is currently participating in a project called "PAMARCMIP" where he is operating trace gas measurements (CO, CO 2 , H 2 O) onboard the Polar 5 research aircraft of AWI. The campaign takes place from northern Greenland ( Villum Research Station, Station Nord ). And interestingly, although Station Nord is west of Mainz, it is closer to Taiwan than Mainz: Mainz - Station Nord - Taiwan Besides of that, we conducted another measurement flight yesterday (22.03.2018), had a ground day today (maintenance, calibrations, quicklooks,...) and will do the next flight tomorrow. HALO returning from the flight on 22.03.2018

Today I had a day off. I had to take it, because the rules are strict: You are not allowed to fly if you didn't have a day off in the last seven days, and my last day off was last Wednesday. So I took a rental bike (very convenient rental system here), explored the town center and did some sightseeing. But tomorrow we will already conduct the next flight!

Today we conducted the third measurement flight, heading south towards Manila (Philippines) to probe the Manila plume. A tracer had been released already yesterday that we tried to capture today. According to the forecast it should have worked perfectly, but we will se results of the tracer experiment only after the air samples have been analyzed at DLR. But the "normal" pollution plume of Manila was clearly observed with trace gases like CO, NOx, and actetone, and in the concentrations of black carbon, sulfate, and organic aerosol particles. Over the Philippines In the afternoon, when some of us were already back to the hotel, suddenly the room was shaking: an earthquake! Not unsusual for Taiwan, located at the "Ring of Fire". The center of the earthquake was about 50 km NE of Tainan, where it had a strengh of 5.2. For Tainan it was rated with intensitiy 3. All these information were available on the earthquake-related websites just few minutes after the ea

After a ground day with lots of calibration and maintenance we conduct today the second flight out of Taiwan. Prepartions started as early as 04:00 local time, to be ready for a take-off at 08:30 local (00:30 UTC). And HALO made even 10 minutes earlier! Preparation started at 04:00 local time! During the flight there is a connection via satellite between HALO and the ground crew. We can see the position and some data and have the possibility to write messages in a chat panel. Today the planned flight track looks like this (below), and we can follow the current position of HALO. Planned and actual flight track for today.

Today HALO took off at 09:00 local (01:00 UTC) for the first real measurement flight from Tainan! Everything worked fine, and after a long flight HALO landed safely around 17:40 local, right before the sun set in the hazy sky over Tainan. So everone is really relieved that finally the campaign gets into the real scientific measurement phase! HALO directly after landing, while the sun sets in the hazy sky.

After the cancellation of the flight planned for Thursday we are now very happy that we received the permit for the measurement flight for Saturday! So tomorrow the first people start at 4:15 from the hotel to power up the aircraft at 4:30. Take off is planned for 09:00 local, that's 01:00 UTC and 02:00 German time. So we are all happy, not only because we have the happiness factory right opposite of the airport: Here's where happiness is made!

Today the aircraft and all instruments prepared for a research flight tomorrow towards the Philippines to catch the plume of Manila. But unfortunately, the flight was cancelled on very short notice (around 7:30 pm), by the ATC of the Philippines who disapproved the routing. So another ground day tomorrow. The weather forecast looks somewhat different to that at home: In the evening some of us tried very tasty local food in a small restaurant by the roadside. That's where and when the news on the cancelled flight reached us. Local Taiwanese restaurant.

Today was the first day for HALO in the Air Aisa hangar at Tainan airport. After some smaller problems power supply was installed and work on the aircraft and instruments could start. The freight container of DLR arrived as well. HALO at the hangar at Tainan In the afternoon a press conference was held to introduce the projects ProACT³ (the partner project of EMeRGe in Taiwan) and EMeRGe-Asia to the public. Air Asia was the host of the press conference. Most of it was held in Chinese language, so the invited PIs of EMeRGe didn't understand anything. The press conference introducing ProACT³ and EMeRGe-Asia. In the evening Air Asia invited the PIs and some of the DLR FX crew to dinner. That was a very special and instersting, but mainly positive experience. We learned a lot about Taiwanese hospitality, language, and food! Dinner hosted by Air Asia.

HALO flew from U-Tapao to Taiwan today and performed a successful measurement flight. Me and one colleague from DLR took a regular flight from Bangkok to Taipeh and from there the High Speed Railway (not as fast as a German ICE!) to Tainan. After a short taxi ride we arrived shortly befor midnight at the hotel. HALO had landed already at 7:30 pm (local). From emails we saw that the measurement flight worked well. Tomorrow we will meet the team at breakfast before going to the airport to check and prepare the instruments. HALO before the 3rd ferry flight on the apron at U-Tapao.

After arriving at Bangkok early in the morning I learned that HALO had landed safely at Abu Dhabi yesterday. I took a taxi to the hotel at Pattaya, then got some sleep, had the afternoon to relax (remember, it is Sunday) before I met with the two other guys from DLR at 5 pm to drive to the airport U-Tapao, where we expected HALO to land at 7 pm local. And everthing went fine, HALO arrived even 10 minutes earlier. This second part of the ferry was no measurement flight, since we had no permit for aerial work over India. Tomorrow morning the third ferry flight will again be a measurement flight. We plan to be at the airport at 7 am to prepare everything. HALO short after landing at U-Tapao. 6:55 pm local, but it's already dark!

HALO took off as scheduled for the first ferry flight to Abu Dhabi today around 08:40 local. Preparations started as early as 04:00! The rest of the team will travel either to Bangkok/Pattaya or to Taiwan today or tomorrow. HALO on its way to the first ferry flight.

Today we prepared everything for the first ferry flight to Abu Dhabi tomorrow. The flight will be a measurement flight, so we need to start early (4:00), because some instruments need warm-up time. Take-off is scheduled for 08:30 local time, expected landing at Abu Dhabi 20:00 local (3 h time shift). I will not be on board of HALO during the ferry but will take a regular flight to Bangkok in the afternoon where I will land around 06:00 on Sunday morning before travelling by bus or taxi to Pattaya (close to the airport U-Tapao where HALO will land on Sunday evening for the second overnight stop). The lake at Weßling (near DLR) is still partly frozen (see picture), so we will experience a strong temperature contrast between here and Thailand.

On Thursday, March 08, we did a short test flight before noon to see if all instruments perfomed well. And indeed, most of them did, but some smaller problems were discovered. So it was good to have one whole afternoon and a whole day to get all things ready. On the picture you see the HALO aircraft short before the test flight at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In the meantime we learned that the second overnight stop was relocated from Phuket to U-Tapao (near Pattaya), also in Thailand, rather close to Bangkok. So the ground team (two of DRL and me) changed our flights and hotel bookings to be at U-Tapao on Sunday when HALO is expected to land at 19:00 local.

Hello everyone! This is an inofficial private blog about the scientific aircraft mission "EMeRGe-Asia". The mission is conducted using the German research aircraft HALO, operated by DLR. Mission coordinator is the University Bremen. See here for the project website . My name is Johannes Schneider, scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany. The mission goal is to study the evolution of the emissions of megacities (or major population centers) during their stay and transport in the atmosphere. The first part of the project, EMeRGe-EU, was conducted over Europe in July 2017. The second phase, EMeRGe-Asia, is about to start right now. The preparation of the aircraft at Oberpfaffenhofen, DLR, has started already some weeks ago, but now we are ready to get airborne. Tomorrow we will do a test flight, and on Saturday (10.03.2018) HALO will start for the first part of the ferry flight to Taiwan, where it will be based for the next 4 weeks. The ferry fli