VOCALS uses four airplanes and one jet to make measurements of the atmosphere.
Images courtesy of UCAR, U.S. Dept. of Energy, CIRPAS, NERC, and BAE Systems.
Research Aircraft Used in the VOCALS Campaign
The VOCALS field campaign uses several airplanes and one jet to carry instruments. Those instruments take many kinds of measurements of the atmosphere in the Southeast Pacific. These research aircraft have special inlet ports that bring air from the outside into the plane so scientists can sample it and make measurements.
The U.S.A.'s National Science Foundation (NSF) owns a C-130 airplane. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) flies that plane. It takes lots of measurements for VOCALS.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) has a Gulfstream 159 airplane. That plane, which is called the G-1 for short, is helping the VOCALS scientists too.
A third plane used in VOCALS comes from the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS). That is part of the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
The other two VOCALS aircraft are from the United Kingdom. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) uses a type of plane called a Dornier 228. It is called "D-CALM" for short. It takes pictures of clouds from the air.
Finally, the second aircraft from the United Kingdom is a jet. It is from the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM). The BAE-146 jet can fly higher than the other planes in VOCALS.
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