Ideas for a three-aircraft planetary observing fleet

Abstract

A new generation of research aircraft, based on modern mid-sized business jets, will provide access to upper regions of the atmosphere and remote regions of the planet not reachable by the current research aircraft. Equipped with extensive research modifications, modern instruments, and advanced air-to-ground communication systems, these new aircraft will allow investigators to attack key questions in global atmospheric dynamics, global cycles of water and carbon, global energy budgets, and regional and global air quality and chemical transport. A three-aircraft fleet of these aircraft could provide unprecedented coordinated intercalibrated coverage of the planetary atmosphere and surfaces in a manner that greatly enhances the total ground, ocean, and satellite observing system.