The MAGIC-AVALON campaign

In the summer of 2025, three major European satellites have been launched: MTG-S on July 1^st, MicroCarb on July 25^th and Metop-SG-A1 on August 12^th. Several instruments aiming at the observation of atmospheric composition and related surface emissions can be found of these platforms, such as IASI-NG and IRS infrared sounders, Sentinel-4 and 5 or 3MI. The calibration/validation phases of all these missions are planned to last until the end of June/July 2026.

An ambitious field campaign has been planned by a European consortium (France, Belgium, Germany and United Kingdom) to participate to the validation exercises of these missions, prepare the next generation of atmospheric space missions and address key scientific questions on anthropogenic greenhouse gases: the MAGIC-AVALON (Aircraft VALidation Of New-generation satellites) campaign.

Over the full month of June 2026, an international consortium of about 90 scientists will operate a battery of instruments deployed on the ground, onboard hundreds of weather balloons, as well as onboard three research aircrafts. Measurements will take place over France and Belgium.

The campaign is led by CNRS-LMD and supported by three European Space agencies: CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), ESA (European Space Agency) and EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites).

Scientific objectives

The MAGIC-AVALON campaign aims at providing an extensive knowledge of the state of the atmosphere and the surface at the overpassing time of the satellites in order to address three scientific objectives:

• SO1: To validate newly launched European satellites: Metop-SG-A1, MTG-S and Microcarb.
• SO2: To provide urgently needed data on anthropogenic greenhouse gases and related gases (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, CO, HN3) for quantifying anthropogenic emissions with a focus on agriculture and farming.
• SO3: To prepare future European space missions, such as ESA Earth Explorer missions.

To reach these objectives, main targets are the measurements of: temperature, H₂O, O₃, CO₂, CH₄, CO, N₂O, NO₂, NH₃ and aerosols.

Campaign characteristics

The campaign is expected to take place between 1-28 June 2026. This time period corresponds to the end of the validation phase of most instruments onboard Metop-SG-A1 and MTG-S and provides good measurement conditions in Western Europe. Moreover, a specific flight condition implemented by EUMETSAT will cover the two first weeks of the campaign: the Metop-C/Metop-SG-A1 tandem flight, during which these two satellites will closely follow each other on the same orbit in order to cross-validate both of them.

Measurements will take place over most of France and North-West Belgium. The campaign will build on several French instrumented sites: two stations part of the AirCore-France network (Aire-sur-l’Adour CNES site and MDH-Reims site), Lannion CMS site of Météo-France and SIRTA at Ecole polytechnique. All of these stations will be used to daily launch weather ballons in order to measure atmospheric profiles of temperature, humidity, atmospheric gases and aerosols. They will also host several ground-based instruments that will continuously measure various atmospheric and surface variables. Research aircrafts will be deployed to fly over satellite tracks, linking all sites together.

In addition, two specific regions will be extensively monitored: Flanders (Belgium) and Brittany (France). These two regions are strong emitters of methane and amonia, as well as carbon dioxide. They will be used to evaluate the capability of current and future space missions to capture these anthropogenic emissions.

The instruments

About 40 instruments will be deployed during MAGIC-AVALON:

• 120 weather balloons should be launched from the 4 identified stations described above. They will carry: AirCore-light atmospheric samplers, meteo sondes, ozone sondes and particule counters.
• Three research aircrafts are joining the campaign for more than 200 hours of scientific flight: SAFIRE ATR42, DLR Cessna-Caravan and SSF-Tecnam P2012. Payload will include remote sensing instruments, such as OSIRIS (3MI demonstrator), SCALE (CNES CO2 lidar), Telops Hyper-Cam or SWING, as well as atmospheric samplers such as SPIRIT, or the new IAGOS bay. Coordinated flights are organized to take advantage of the full suite of instruments onboard the planes.
• Ground-based measurements will include: mobile Fourrier Transform Spectrometers operating in the infrared (from the far-infrared, such as FINESSE, to the shortwave-infrared, such as CHRIS), aerosol lidar and photometer, and several lidars measuring gas abundances (H2O, CO2, CH4), wind and temperature.

The team

All together, the campaign involves 21 teams from 5 countries:

• AERIS (CNRS – France)
• AEROLAB/CIEL (CNRS, Université de Reims-Champagne Ardennes – France)
• BIRA-IASB (Belgium)
• CMS (Météo-France – France)
• CNRM (CNRS, Météo-France – France)
• CNES (France)
• DLR (Germany)
• Freie Universitat Berlin (Germany)
• GFZ (Germany)
• Imperial College (UK)
• IPSL (France)
• LAERO (CNRS, Université de Toulouse – France)
• LATMOS (CNRS, Sorbonne Univerté)
• LMD (CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, Sorbonne Université, ENS – France) – lead
• LOA (CNRS, Université de Lille – France)
• LPC2E (CNRS, Université d’Orléans – France)
• LSCE (CNRS, CEA, Université de Paris-Saclay – France)
• SAFIRE (CNRS, Météo-France, CNES – France)
• SFS (Switzerland)
• SIRTA (CNRS, IPSL)
• ULB (Belgium)

Campaign logbook

Tuesday 9 June

Today, the first combined flight between SAFIRE ATR42 and DLR Cessna-Caravan took place over the Ghent region in Belgium. The goal was to capture the emissions from Ghent industrial sites, while testing the possibility to perform collocated measurements between the two aircrafts allowing for the combination of the instruments flying on each aircraft. And it was a success with a perfectly timed rendez-vous point over the “GAN2” point, just in a giant cloud hole in an overly overcast region. A perfect rehearsal for a future combined flight with all instruments operating onboard. At the same time, the ground-based team from DLR performed some measurements in Ghent. The ATR42 continued then to the Antwerp region for a star-square pattern. A great thanks to Belgium ATC for allowing us the possibility to fly this pattern.

Higher up, the 4th radiosonde was performed at Lannion, with an exceptionaly long flight.

Monday 8 June

Today, the 4th MAGIC-AVALON Science Flight headed to Ghent for a short test flight aiming at preparing the future flights over Belgium. The aircraft encountered very peculiar flight conditions, flying between two very homogenous cloud levels. Mid-level liquid clouds just below the ATR-42 showed psychedelic colors when observed in polarized light and thin cirrus above exhibited a nice halo around the sun. In the end, and quite unexpectedly, a perfect test case for validation of 3MI and VII multilayer detection and retrieval algorithm, as well a good case study to look at synergy between IASI-NG and 3MI.

Regarding in-situ instruments onboard the ATR42, some more great data were acquired, allowing for the comparison between the new O4C instrument from AEROLAB and the Picarro, yielding an excellent agreement, albeit a bias as expected for uncalibrated data. An impressive result for such a new instrument as O4C, given it is its first deployement in an aircraft campaign! As a bonus, a plume was observed during the descent towards Calais, as we flew over Dunkirk.

The Tecnam P2012 was relocated from Switzerland to Belgium. It safely landed in Kortrijk (Belgium) around 1pm! All instruments ready for the campaign and a first test flight tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in Lannion, flight chains were prepared and tested for the upcoming AirCore flights. The joined CMS-CNRM-LMD team is eager to start the launches!

The DLR team was on their second off day of the campaign. It was time to recharge the batteries prior a busy second week of the campaign. After recovering a bit of sleep the day started with a quick refreshing dip in the Atlantic Ocean followed by a walk along the cliffs of Normandy. In the evening a fish restaurant in a nearby village was chosen for a delicious dinner. Afterwards the planned flights for the upcoming days were discussed. As there were still some preparations necessary for the morning flight planned for the next day like refilling the calibration gas bottles and changing the filled Flasks of the JAS sampler everyone went to bed early to get some rest.

Sunday 7 June

Today saw the first incursion of the MAGIC team to Belgium, with the DLR team deployed the Cessna and its ground-based mobile team to the region of Ghent. The objective: to study the emissions of CO2, CH4 and CO from the industrial sites located there.

Enjoying the second day-off for the ATR crew, the LPC2E team had a chance to continue exploring the magnificent Opal Coast between Cap Gris-Nez and Boulogne-sur-Mer. On the agenda: seascapes, fresh air, and a few unusual discoveries. After encountering the famous golden turtle of Nieuwpoort during the previous day off, the team came across a new remarkable specimen today: the golden Glou-Glou (turkey). The scientific mission has not yet determined whether it belongs to the same species as the turtle, but investigations are ongoing. On the culinary front, the team embarked on a local culinary experiment by sampling a Welsh rarebit reimagined as a pizza. The results are promising, though further testing will likely be needed to confirm the findings. A day marked by discovery, before SPIRIT’s imminent return to its favorite element: the sky !

Meanwhile, in Lannion, the LMD team discovered the town centre of Lannion and visited the Church of Brélévenez. Ending the day with a nice encounter with Dolmens and Menhirs near the coast.

Saturday 6 June

After a good night rest in the hot weather of Toulouse, the ATR42 crew headed back to Calais, following a flight path over the Atlantic Ocean. Excellent atmospheric conditions allowed were encountered from the Gulf of Gascogne up to the Morbihan, allowing for great data acquisition for both OSIRIS and SCALE. The flight gave a great opportunity to observe extended low cloud cover over the Atlantic and Normandy with their characteristic cloud bows showing in the OSIRIS polarization image. In addition, clear sky conditions off the southern coast of Morbihan provided nice views of a few iconic islands: Hoedic, Houat, Belle-Ile-en-Mer, Groix and Les Glénans.

In particular, the analysis of the data acquired by SCALE over the sea, at two different levels (FL180 and FL200) data will be very useful to better understand the behavior of the instrument above the water.

The weather was not the same in Calais, with rainy and gusty conditions. Saturday was thus chosen by the DLR team as another ground day. The calibration gas for the MIRO Instrument was refilled and the sampled flasks of the JAS Instrument were exchanged with new empty ones. As Ghent was decided as a new target area for the double flight of DLR Cessna on Sunday, a lot of flight planning was also done: A steel fabric, chemical industry and the city plume were chosen as targets for the morning flight. For the afternoon it was decided to practise a new flight pattern on one of the targets which will play an important role in the satellite validation later in the campaign. The accompanying ground team did a lot of planning as well to find the best spots for supportive measurements close to the targets in the densely populated area of Ghent.

Meanwhile, the team in Lannion enjoyed a picnic along the “Côte de granit Rose”, in intensely windy weather, but with a magical spectacle for the eyes.

Friday 5 June

Friday was a very productive and could even be qualified as a test bed for a future ‘golden day’. It included two aircrafts in the air, first deployment of the mobile ground-based platforms and balloon launches, including rendez-vous points with satellites!

The ATR team had an early start at 5:30 am to start heating the instrument. This was followed by crew briefing and take-off at 9:00am. The objective: flying form Reims to Aire-sur-l’Adour following the Metop-SG morning orbit, included a missed approach at Chateauroux airport to acquire profiles from all in-situ instruments. Unfortunately, due to cloudy and windy conditions, all planned balloon flights at Reims and Aire-sur-l’Adour got cancelled, preventing from comparison between SCALE measurements and these external data. Nonetheless, the flight was a good opportunity to test various configurations for the lidar and be ready to experiment more on the return flight. The ATR track allowed for good acquisition of OSIRIS, demonstrator of 3MI.

In the North, two more flights of DLR Cessna were executed to the Dunkirk industry region: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The airborne measurements were again accompanied by ground measurements from DLR but this time, thanks to a better weather than in the beginning of the week, they were joined by the mobile platform from the joined LOA and Imperial College teams. From the analyzed data of the previous Cessna flight and ground measurement in this region on Tuesday the team was able to work out the most interesting measurement sites and improve the flight pattern of the DLR Cessna. As there were no problems with the instruments and even a working weather station was added to the DLR ground measurements, the team was very happy with this very smooth campaign day.

Last radiosounding balloon at Lannion before the week-end, for the first time with great conditions on ground. The team had to delay the flight due to an upcoming plane at the Airport. The “go” was called when the Control Tower at the Airport had the plane on ground.

All together, a very productive day, with lots of data to be analyzed. It was time for restfull evening in Calais, Lannion, Lille, Reims and Toulouse!

Thursday 4 June

Today, the first flight of the ATR42 took place. Its objective: validating the 3MI instruments onboard the Metop-SG-A1 satellite, and also contributing to the demonstration of ECO and SCALE future space missions. To reach this objective, an ambitious scenario was put in place: flying to Brittany to rendez-vous with no less than 2 satellites, Metop-SG-A1 at 10:12 UTC over the Cotentin region, and then CO3D at 11:23 UTC. The latter requesting an exact collection in time and space, in a rectangle of 7×20 km2. And, thanks to a carefully planned flight and amazing last minute change due to some incoming traffic, both rendez-vous were met at the exact time and place!

Onboard the ATR42, all instruments worked nominally and allowed for a great gathering of data.

On the menu for the OSIRIS/LOA team we had a “rendez-vous” with Metop-SG-A1 at 10h12 UTC over Normandy for 3MI validation, a tour over Bretagne du Nord and Lannion for ECO Earth Explorer 12 demonstration and more 3MI validation, and finally another meeting point at 11h23 UTC with the CO3D mission for C3IEL demonstration.

This flight also marks SCALE’s first acquisition over the sea! Weather was mainly cloudy, but some limited clear sky pattern allowed to notice a low amplitude signal.

The flight was also the first flights for the O4C instrument. This greenhouse gases sensor was recently developed at AEROLAB, as part of the Equipex+ Obs4Clim project. The O4C instrument was fully operational: measurements were recorded correctly throughout the flight. Despite a slight delay at start-up, which resulted in a shorter warm-up time, the initial data show good agreement (CO₂, CH₄ and H₂O) with the Picarro reference instrument, which was operating on the same sampling line.

Finally, the second launch of a radiosounding balloon at Lannion was performed at the overpassing time of Metop-SG-A1. The dedicated team worked in collective intelligence to perform their first flight in complete autonomy. It was a success, despite the heavy wind at ground.

And for more results from the campaign, please see our quicklook page here.

Wednesday 3 June

Today is the first day-off for the aircraft crews. They could enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Calais… and experiment the strong wind and nice rain of the ‘Côte d’Opale’. On the agenda of the LPC2E team: a trip to the coast via Dunkirk, then on to La Panne and Nieuwpoort. Among the day’s discoveries was a surprising golden turtle spotted in Nieuwpoort. The traditional Belgian chips were also subjected to rigorous scientific scrutiny and passed all quality tests with flying colours. A convivial day that allowed us to recharge our batteries before operations resume. For the next day off, however, we suggest adding a simple criterion to the specifications for rest days: a little more sun and a little less rain !

Meanwhile in Lannion, where rain was also coming hard, the LMD team worked on finalizing the preparation of the flight chain for the AirCore flights, including the final tests on the separator (which cuts the rope between balloon and parachute), that will separate the balloon from the rest of the flight chain at a programmed altitude, allowing for an easier separation than when the balloon explodes.

The FINESSE team visited the BEAM site in West Flanders in preparation for deployment there next week.  Lieven, Martin and Lorenzo were very helpful in showing us around including a quick training session on the scissor lift and a demonstration of some of the exciting instrumentation that has been deployed around the farm.

The afternoon briefing meeting confirmed the aircraft flights for tomorrow. Objective: Brittany!

Tuesday 2 June

 Despite a rainy start, today saw a great improvement in the weather, leading to the first airborne measurements of the campaign.

In Lannion, the first meteo sonde launch took place at 10:43 UTC under a beautiful blue sky. After inflating the balloon and coordinating with local authorities, the CMS-CNRM-LMD team release the balloon carrying an M20 sonde in order to measure profiles of temperature, humidity and wind. The launch was organized to organize a rendez-vous with the Metop-SG-A1 satellite that was scheduled to flyby the region at 10:42 UTC.

In Calais, at 13:00 UTC, DLR Cessna-Caravan took-off for its first flight. Its target: Dunkerque. The strong West wind made ideal the conditions to catch the plumes of gases emitted by the various industries found along the coast there. A specific pattern was thus design to fly several legs perpendicular to the plume at various altitudes. The in-situ instruments on-board quickly confirmed large enhancements of methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide at the forecasted location of the plume. A ground-based team from DLR also took this opportunity to deploy an AERIS instrument performing measurement of methane and ethylene at a few meters above the ground. Here again, a large enhancement of methane (~1.2 ppm) was observed.

The last checks of the instruments inside the ATR42 were organized and gave the opportunity to our ESA campaign manager to discover the whole suites of instruments available in this flying laboratory.

Meanwhile, in Lille, training of the team to deploy the MAMS mobile platform continued with the presentation of CHRIS SWIR-MIR interferometer. The team is now ready to deploy any days… when weather allows.

Undeterred by the slightly pessimistic weather forecast, the FINESSE team captured measurements at the same time as a Metop SG-A1 satellite overpass at 10.38 pm.  While the overhead conditions didn’t quite play ball we had some beautiful views of the sunset, Venus, Jupiter and the reflections of the LOA lidars from the cloud base!   

Finally, in Belgium, the mini-DOAS instrument from LATMOS was successfully installed at the BEAM site.

Regarding the plans for the next few days, based on weather and satellite trajectory forecasts, the decision was taken to have a day-off on Wednesday, especially for the aircraft teams, before performing a succession of no less that 3 measurement scenarios the following days. On Friday, the plan is to have the ATR42 and the Cessna-Caravan flying back-and-forth between Calais and Brittany, in order to rendez-vous with Metop-SG at 10:12 UTC over the Cotentin region and specifically validate 3MI observations. Then, on Friday and Saturday, the ATR42 will make an ambitious tour de France by flying under the Metop-SG track from Calais to Aire-sur-l’Adour on Friday and then between Aire-sur-l’Adour and Lannion and back to Calais on Saturday.

Monday 1 June

Today was the official start of the campaign with the first daily briefing meeting at 9:30. The occasion to welcome all participants in Calais, Lannion, Palaiseau, Aire-sur-l’Adour, Reims, Bruxelles and Switzerland. No measurement was planned today to allow the teams to arrive on site and install all the equipement.

Today was also training day! In Lannion, CNRM organized a full balloon launch training on the CMS site. The occasion to learn how to operate meteo sondes, inflate balloons and follow the extensive security procedure. Julie Capot (CNRM, France) installed the antenna for receiving the signal of the M20 radiosounding device, which will fly fly under meteorological balloon, either with an AirCore or on its own. 

In Lille, the afternoon was devoted to finishing the installation of the mobile instruments (Plasma, Lidar, Photometer) in the car. A training session was then organized to show their operation to all the LOA staff involved in the campaign. And FINESSE, the MIR-FIR interferometer from Imperial College performed its first measurement!

The Imperial College team set up their ground-based FINESSE (Far INfrarEd Spectrometer for Surface Emissivity) instrument on the roof of the Laboratory Optical Atmosphérique at the University of Lille.  FINESSE can measure the spectrum of downwelling energy emitted by the overlying atmosphere every few seconds, allowing us to see the energetic influence of rapid changes in temperature, water vapour, cloud cover and cloud type.  Conditions transitioned from being relatively clear in the early morning to more complex combinations of cirrus, fair-weather cumulus and clear skies in the early-mid afternoon (see photo below), all of which will be fun to explore with the FINESSE observations.

Our Belgium collegues from the BEAM project and one team from LATMOS continued the installation of the suite of instruments deployed in West Flanders at the BEAM site located in a pig farm in this agricultural region. First measurements are planned in Thursday… if weather allows.

In Calais, we welcomed five students from Lille University who visited the installation and got the full tour of the ATR42 in the morning, with SAFIRE team guiding them through the numerous instruments installed onboard.

Later in the afternoon, DLR Cessna-Caravan in Calais landed at 14:10 CEST and joined the already stationed ATR42 from SAFIRE. The Cessna was transferred from Oberpfaffenhofen to Calais. After 1.5 hours an intermediate stop was made in Saarbrücken for refueling purposes. As the weather conditions were sunny with a few clouds, the flight was very calm. During the flight the opportunity to measure extra data and gain more experience with the Miro and Picarro instruments was seized. During the flight a problem with the Miro instrument occurred which meant that only measurements with the Picarro instruments were possible.After landing in Calais the plane was pushed into the hangar which had been prepared in the morning. The issue with the Miro instrument was fixed in the hangar as well so everything is set for a successful campaign.

Both aircrafts are now ready for measurement! This led to the first meeting of both aircraft teams under a beautiful sun… Meanwhile, the SFS Tecnam P2012 is still stationed in Switzerland and won’t commute to Belgium until the end of the week due to the bad weather forecasted for the next days.

At the afternoon briefing at 17:00 CEST, it was decided to not performed measurements the two following days given the weather forecast (heavy rain in all regions). The first airborne measurements are envisioned on Thursday. Fingers crossed!

Sunday 31 May

Most of the teams travelled today, by train, to reach their campaign quarters. The highest number was for the city of Calais, in the North of France, where the ATR42 and the Cessna-Caravan aircrafts will be located. They arrived under a fair weather and cool temperatures.

Friday 29 May

Today was the last online meeting of the preparation phase of the campaign. An opportunity to make a last check on the instrument and platform status… With two exceptions for final testing, status boxes are all green. Congratulations to all the teams for the hard work. It is a go for the campaign!

Now, only the capricious weather seems intent on playing tricks on us. The weather forecast—which has been remarkably stable for the past few days and consistent across all NWP models—promises a rainy start to the week. This comes after a week of beautiful, dry, sunny weather. A frustrating start… but typical for a MAGIC campaign!

Final preparations are underway in a cheerful atmosphere… with a touch of excitement. Safe journey to all the teams, and see you all on Monday morning for the official kickoff of the campaign.

Thursday 28 May

Today was devoted to aircraft scientific test flight for both SAFIRE ATR42 and DLR Cessna-Caravan.

Onboard the ATR42, SCALE comb lidar operated by CNES gave very satisfying results at the different altitudes. At highest foreseen altitude (around 6000m), a slight instrument parameter adjustment was needed giving afterwards good data quality.

On the DLR side, the flask sampling unit C-JAS (Jena Air Sampler) provided by MPI-Jena was equipped with a drying agent and tested during ground operation this morning. Afterwards, a practical safety briefing was given to the DLR crew, including explanations of emergency exits and emergency procedures.

From 13:00 to 15:20 local time, a test flight was conducted in the direction of Ingolstadt with three operators on board (for the flight pattern, see the entry from 26 May). The flight time was chosen to coincide with satellite overpasses. During the flight, the predefined flight box, designed for mass balance and eddy covariance analyses, was sampled at four different altitudes. The urban plume of Ingolstadt was clearly visible, and it is likely that several atmospheric eddies were captured during the measurements. The collected data will be analysed in more detail over the next few days.

Wednesday 27 May

Today, a major milestone was achieved, with the completion of the Campaign Implementation Plan. This 60-page document described all instruments, platforms, sites and models that will be used throughout the campaign, together with the planned measurement scenarios needed to address the campaign Scientific Objectives, as well as the overall organization. A reference document that will be used by all the teams involved inteh campaign.

Today, the Picarro G2401-m instrument installed in the Cessna Caravan was calibrated. Calibration gas from two different gas cylinders was supplied to the instrument via a mass flow controller and measured in order to verify the accuracy of the instrument before the measurement campaign. The measurements will later be used for a two-point calibration after the campaign. Since the Picarro instrument provides very stable and reliable measurements, calibrations are only performed once before and once after the campaign. In addition, an introduction to the “Planet” communication software was given, which is used for communication between the aircraft and the ground team. A theoretical safety briefing for operations with the Cessna Caravan was also completed, including emergency exits, life vests, and general onboard safety procedures.

Tuesday 26 May

The day started early for the ATR42 team with a specific test flight dedicated to the aircraft itself. Its purpose: checking the new engine that was previously installed before integration of the instrument started. And the result is clear: the aircraft is fit for duty! This led to a second test flight: the EMI (Electrical and Mechanical Interference) flight. A second success in the day for the team!

Almost simultaneously, in Oberpfaffenhofen, the electrical and mechanical approval of the installed trace gas instrumentation in the DLR Cessna aircraft was successfully completed. Furthermore, the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) test was performed. This test is necessary to test the radio frequencies used by the pilot in the aircraft for communication with the Air Traffic Control (ATC). All the tested frequencies were free of interference when the installed trace gas instrumentation was switched on. The first draft of a test flight to Ingolstadt on Thursday 28^th May was developed. This flight contains elements of (1) satellite validation (forecasted TROPOMI pixels in pink to be crossed in the centre), (2) eddy covariance and (3) mass balance approach for anthropogenic fluxes from agriculture and point sources (red dots: biogas plant and Ingolstadt city plume). The main flight pattern (yellow box) will be flown on different altitudes up- and downwind of the two-point sources.     

Friday 22 May

One of the last steps in the integration of the airborne instrumentation is the wiring of all instruments. Today the wiring of the meteorological pod in the DLR Cessna aircraft, called “Black Mamba”, took place. With this pod a number of meteorological parameters can be measured, as e.g. different kind of temperatures and pressures, the water vapour content, and the 3D wind, meaning that in addition to the two horizontal wind components also the vertical wind component can be obtained. For certain applications, as flux estimates (e.g. eddy covariance), a high temporal resolution of such measurements is of high importance. Measurements with a high resolution of <0.1 s can be provided from this system designed especially for the DLR Cessna.   

Thursday 21 May

In addition to the DLR instrumentation already installed on the DLR Cessna aircraft on 19^th May), a further rack, containing the flask sampling unit C-JAS (Jena Air Sampler) provided by MPI-Jena was installed electrically today. The ambient air, sampled in flasks with this device, will be analysed in the laboratory (gas chromatography) after the field campaign. With this method a large variety of trace gases can be determined. For the objective of our field experiment, the major gases will be CH4 and its isotopologues, CO2 and N2O. In a further step, these flask measurements can be compared to the in situ measurements gained from the Picarro and MIRO instruments.

Wednesday 20 May

In Palaiseau, where AirCore launches will be organized from the SIRTA observatory supersite, a special training session was organized by the LMD team. The goal: to present the instruments and technical objectives for AirCore launches, and train the dozens of people that will actively participate to the preparation, launches, recovery and analyses of the atmospheric air sampler.

One of the trickiest parts of the instrument integration in the DLR Cessna is the laying of the three inlet tubes for the PICARRO, MIRO and JAS racks. All of the instruments need Teflon tubes with different cross-section dimensions depending on the required air flow to the instruments. These tubes are installed below the airplane wing and then directed into the aircraft through the wing.  

Monday 18 May to Tuesday 19 May

Over the last two days, DLR Cessna-Caravan aircraft has been prepared intensively for the MAGIC-AVALON field campaign. On 19^th of May, the three trace gas racks (PICARRO and MIRO from DLR, and the JAS flask sampling unit from MPI-Jena) were installed on DLR Cessna-Caravan. The PICARRO and MIRO instruments are measuring a number of trace gases in-situ, this means that an inlet is mounted on the aircraft which sucks the ambient air into the aircraft. Both instruments are spectrometers, based on cavity ringdown and direct absorption techniques, respectively. The main greenhouse gases measured with this installation are CH4, CO2 and N2O.

Monday 11 May to Tuesday 19 May

During these two weeks, no less than 5 teams worked hard to prepare SAFIRE ATR42 at Frankazal airport, installing in-situ and remote sensing instruments onboard SAFIRE ATR42.

The LPC2E team installed SPIRIT (SPectromètre InfraRouge In situ Troposphérique) and performed functional tests with nominal results: real-time meaurements of the trace gases CO, CH4, NO2, N2O each 1.6 s by infrared ultra-high-resolution spectroscopy coupling a multipass cell to 3 Quantum Cascade Lasers.

The LAERO team installed the IAGOS bay (130 kg) on 13^th May. It includes three instruments: IAGOS Package1 (O3, CO), IAGOS miniO3 (prototype O3 with internal calibration) and AEROLAB O4C (prototype for CO2/CH4). All tests, included communication with Safire systems (Time synchronisation, MQTT, Graphicator) were completed on 19^th May.

The same day, the same bottle of gas target for CO2/CH4/CO was successfully recorded by Safire/LSCE Picarro (CO2/CH4), IAGOS Package1 (CO) and AEROLAB O4C (CO2/CH4).

Finally, the CNES team successfully installed the CO2 comb lidar SCALE at the rear of the aircraft.

To close these two weeks, great news were received: ATC has granted flight authorization to SAFIRE for the MAGIC-AVALON target zones!

Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 May

On 7 and 8 May, integration of Telops Hyper-Cam and SWING onboard SFS Tecnam P2012 was performed in “Les Éplatures” airport, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Test flight was organized on 9 May. Hyper-Cam geocorrection looks ok and Telops is optimizing it. Black band/track due to an out of tolerance attitude of the aircraft is under investigation. SWING was not operated in the test flight due to a wiring issue with the Applanix IMU that was solved after the flight.

Thursday 9 April

On April 9th, a first test/science flight was conducted following the integration of OSIRIS and the baffled CMP22 aboard the ATR-42.  The very successful flight occured during a Metop-SG-A1 overpass and allowed acquisition of 3 hours of data over land and ocean under clear sky or cloudy conditions. Several transitions from land to clear sky ocean leading to sharp modification in upwelling SW flux, especially provide valuable data to test the observation concept of the ECO mission (Earth Explorer 12 candidate). While 3MI/Metop-SG-A1 data are not publicly available yet, this flight also provide valuable data for the 3MI Cal/Val activities, one of the key objectives of the MAGIC-AVALON campaign in June.

Thursday 2 April

Today, the Kick-Off meeting for the preparation of MAGIC-AVALON took pace online. It gathered 51 partners from the twenty European teams participating to the campaign. Representatives from our funding agencies, CNES, ESA and EUMETSAT, presented their views and expectations on the campaign. It was followed by an overview of all the instruments that will be deployed during the campaign on aircrafts -, under light balloons and on the ground, as well as the various numerical models that will be used to prepare, implement and then analyze the measurements. A great occasion for each team to get a chance to discover in more details what the other teams will bring to the campaign and start fostering collaborations!

Link to campaign operational website

https://observations.ipsl.fr/aeris/avalon/#/map

Ackowledgments

The MAGIC-AVALON campaign is funded by CNRS, CNES through its annual research program (PARS, project IASI-NG), by ESA throught the MAGIC-POEM project and by EUMETSAT. Belgium partners are also supported by the BEAM project funded by Belspo.