European airliner manufacturer Airbus recently marked the 20th anniversary of its scientific research partnership with a number of international airlines and European universities and scientific institutions to gather atmospheric data. This programme was originally known as Mozaic (an acronym for Measurement of Ozone by Airbus in-service Aircraft) and is now referred to as Mozaic/Iagos (Iagos standing for In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System).

One of the airlines involved in this programme is Southern African carrier Air Namibia. The others are Air France, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Iberia and Lufthansa. Between them, these airlines fly seven Airbus aircraft (one A330 and six A340-300s) fitted with scientific instruments. As a result, data is gathered every day, on flights to and from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East.

“There is today no atmospheric or climate model which does not use the huge Mozaic and Iagos databases to adjust results,” highlighted Airbus Environment for Engineering and Research and Technology head Rainer von Wrede. “Thanks to our participation and the strong partnerships with airlines, laboratories and institutes, the scientific community has a much better understanding of the atmosphere and climate change.”

While Mozaic was conceived in 1993, and the first flight of a Mozaic-equipped aircraft took place on May 12, 1994, the actual research programme was formally inaugurated in August of that year (with an Air France A340 flight from Caracas, in Venezuela, to Bogota, in Colombia). Since then, data has been collected on more than 41 000 commercial flights.

Under Mozaic, the aircraft are equipped to automatically measure, in flight, ozone, carbon monoxide, water vapour and total nitrogen oxides (NOy) levels in the atmosphere. Furthermore, each such measurement was and is “geolocalised” – that is, its location in terms of latitude and longitude is recorded, as is the air pressure at the time. Wind direction, force and temperature are also recorded.

From July 2011, Mozaic has been complemented by Iagos. This complementary programme gathers data on ozone, carbon monoxide, water vapour and on the number and size of cloud droplets. Depending on which optional instruments are fitted, data can also be gathered on carbon dixoide or methane or nitrous oxide (NOx) or NOy. The first Iagos-fitted aircraft carried an instrument to measure NOx.

The data collected is verified and added to the Mozaic/Iagos database, which is free of access for scientific use (although those wishing to use the database must sign the Iagos data protocol and fill in an online form). Some of the data is near real time and is used for weather, air quality and climate forecasting.

The scientific partners in Europe are France’s Centre National de la Recherche Météo-rologique and the Laboratoire d’Aérologie, Germany’s Forschungszentrum Jülich and, in the UK, the Universities of Cambridge and of Reading. Technical support is provided by Airbus (certifying and installing the scientific instruments) and Lufthansa Technik (the certifi-cation and installation of the NOy instrument).

Also on May 12, separately and coincidently, Airbus celebrated the 40th anniversary of the entry-into-service of the very first Airbus – an A300B delivered to launch customer Air France. In all, 878 airliners in the A300/A310 family were to be manufactured, of which more than 400 are still in service with 65 customers. Five were converted to become Airbus’ own A300-600ST Beluga oversized cargo aircraft, which are used to ferry large components of newer designs between various plants across Europe. It is expected that 200 or more A300/A310s will still be in service in 2025. A300/A310s have also been built, or converted into, conventional freighters, military transports, VIP aircraft, air-to-air refuelling tankers and mixed passenger/cargo “combi” aircraft.