25.07.2024

DFG: Priority Programme “Atmospheric and Earth System Research with the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO)”

Proposal submission is possible between 16 December 2024 and 3 January 2025

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). The present call invites proposals for projects (with a duration of up to three years) starting in 2026 (“HALO 2026”). 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 cutting-edge Earth System science and allows 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 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

Proposals must be written in English and submitted to the DFG between 16 December 2024 and 3 January 2025 (for technical reasons, an earlier submission is not possible; technical support is only available until 20 December). 

Complete Call:
https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/info-wissenschaft/2024/ifw-24-67