newstodate.aero
Mar 18, 2013 (newstodate): BAE Systems is to deploy one BAe 146 aircraft to a series of scientific flight operations based at Norway's arctic island, Svalbard.
The aircraft will leave its base at Cranfield, in the UK, today, for a three-week tour of duty based at Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost airport.
From Kiruna, it will fly the 2.5 hour leg to Longyearbyen Airport on the Norwegian island of Svalbard - the northernmost airport in the world that receives scheduled airline services.
After refuelling, the BAe 146 ARA will fly its missions from Svalbard before returning again for more fuel and then heading back to Kiruna.
A combined total of 70 hours of scientific, test and transit flying is planned.
The aim of the campaign is to reduce the current large uncertainty in the representation of the Arctic climate, the main aspect being the poor understanding and representation of cloud and aerosol processes in climate models in general and in the Arctic in particular.
The aircraft will leave its base at Cranfield, in the UK, today, for a three-week tour of duty based at Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost airport.
From Kiruna, it will fly the 2.5 hour leg to Longyearbyen Airport on the Norwegian island of Svalbard - the northernmost airport in the world that receives scheduled airline services.
After refuelling, the BAe 146 ARA will fly its missions from Svalbard before returning again for more fuel and then heading back to Kiruna.
A combined total of 70 hours of scientific, test and transit flying is planned.
The aim of the campaign is to reduce the current large uncertainty in the representation of the Arctic climate, the main aspect being the poor understanding and representation of cloud and aerosol processes in climate models in general and in the Arctic in particular.