Priority Programme “Atmospheric and Earth System Research with the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO)” (SPP 1294)
Deadline: 17. Mai 2024
In 2007, the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) established the Priority Programme “Atmospheric and Earth System Research with the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO)” (SPP 1294). Within the programme proposals are called for projects (up to three years duration) starting from 2025 (“HALO 2025”). An earlier start of funding is not possible.
HALO plays a key role in atmospheric research in Germany. It is a state-of-the-art airborne platform specifically equipped with modern in situ and remote sensing instruments. HALO enables forefront Earth System science and allows for innovative atmospheric and geophysical measurements with an impressive high ceiling altitude of up to 15 km and a spatial endurance of about 10,000 km. It may carry an instrumental payload of up to 3 tons and can be used to study processes within the troposphere and lower stratosphere. HALO-based research is supposed to help understand the interaction of processes within the Earth-system and human activities, which are highly relevant for the society. For satellite missions, HALO provides unique possibilities to combine and validate space-borne data with measurements of the atmosphere that were performed in situ and near the ground.
HALO enables Earth System research on a high international level. Main foci of the scientific investigations are:
- sources, properties and processing of aerosol particles
- formation, evolution and radiative effects of clouds and precipitation
- transport and dynamics in the troposphere and lower stratosphere
- transport and transformation of chemical composition
- atmospheric coupling processes
