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ePaper created 2013-08-02, 08:40:53 | version 1.25.20
20 Research in Jülich 2|2013 O n 30 August 2012, this success is not yet foreseeable. GLORIA is flying at an altitude of 15 kilo- metres over the Atlantic Ocean west of the French coast. The outside tem- perature is -50 °C. Erik Kretschmer re- presents the GLORIA team on board the new German research aircraft HALO. The systems engineer from the Karls- ruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is responsible for the smooth operation of the spectrometer during the ongoing atmospheric measurement campaign. Every single flight hour is precious – but Kretschmer has just been instructed by the pilots to switch GLORIA off. Radio communication is disrupted, and the pilots suspect that this is GLO- RIA’s fault. The reason for their suspicion is that the spectrometer is installed out- side on the fuselage in what is referred to as a ‘bellypod’ – in the direct vicinity of the radio antenna. If Kretschmer switch- es GLORIA off, it will be only a matter of minutes until the spectrometer has cooled down and the sensitive electron- ics are exposed to the bitter cold. But air safety is the top priority. Kretschmer switches the device off and cuts off the energy supply. GLORIA is a masterpiece created by experts from Karlsruhe and Jülich. The initial idea came from atmos- pheric researcher Prof. Martin Riese, di- rector at Jülich’s Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK), and Felix Friedl-Vallon, physicist at KIT. Riese was planning to measure a large range of cli- mate-relevant trace gases in unprece- dented spatial resolution with novel de- 88,000 Kilometres for Research About 30 terabytes of data for climate research: that’s the result of 88,000 kilometres flown in 126 flight hours with the new spectrometer GLORIA in autumn 2012 – a fantastic result for the scientists and engineers involved. Enjoying the evening sun in Cyprus for a moment before the night shift begins: Martin Zögner from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is monitoring all work on the research aircraft while HALO is on the runway. The enormous amounts of data collected during the previous flight must now be securely stored overnight. This process takes several hours and requires the ground crew to be highly focused. Institute Institute