A Lufthansa Group Airbus A340-300 long-haul aircraft has celebrated a long service anniversary in the field of meteorological data collection. The aircraft, registration "D-AIGT", has been continuously collecting atmospheric measurement data for the European research program IAGOS during regular scheduled service for exactly 15 years.
The flight from New York to Frankfurt marked the anniversary of this cooperation, which was initiated in July 2011 in collaboration with the Jülich Research Centre. The program aims to provide precise measurements from cruising altitudes to optimize global atmospheric models and weather forecasts.
The aviation group's involvement in atmospheric research dates back to 1994, when its predecessor system, MOZAIC, was deployed on scheduled flights. Since then, the measurement infrastructure within the group's fleet has been expanded. In addition to the aforementioned Lufthansa aircraft, two further Airbus A330-300s belonging to its subsidiary Discover Airlines are equipped with the corresponding probes and measuring instruments, which are installed below the cockpit. The collected data on ozone and water vapor concentrations are automatically transmitted after landing to a central database at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Toulouse. Approximately 400 organizations and meteorological services worldwide utilize this information.
Aviation experts and meteorologists point out that using regular passenger aircraft fills a significant data gap, as dedicated research flights or satellite measurements at the relevant altitudes of nine to thirteen kilometers are often too expensive or technically limited. Nevertheless, the system is also viewed critically. The installation and additional weight of the measuring instruments mean a slightly increased fuel consumption for airlines in daily operations. Furthermore, with only ten deployed aircraft from eight airlines, the global IAGOS network currently covers only a fraction of global flight routes, resulting in a geographically fragmented dataset.
The program is largely financed by public funds, including those from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and European infrastructure grants. For the participating airlines, the collaboration offers not only the acquisition of scientific data but also insights for their own long-term flight planning. Since the measurements focus on regions important for the Earth's radiation balance, the results are directly incorporated into the further development of meteorological forecasting models, enabling more precise predictions of air currents and weather phenomena.