The primary objective of the European eXport of Precursors and Ozone by long-Range Transport (EXPORT) project is to characterise and quantify the photochemical air pollution both forming over Europe and being exported eastwards from Europe.

The methodology has been to conduct a flying campaign in August 2000 during which measurements of many photochemical parameters including ozone, its precursors, other oxidants and both gas phase and particulate tracers were made in the air over Europe and that being transported eastwards out of Europe. The collected data will then be used to:

identify the origin of the observed polluted air masses;

characterise their chemical composition and tendencies;

validate chemical transport models, which will then be employed to quantify the contribution of European emissions to tropospheric ozone.

Three aircraft were involved in the flying campaign which was based at Oberpfaffenhofen in Southern Germany:

the C-130 Hercules aircraft (NERC Atmospheric Research Airborne Support Facility) operated by the Meteorological Research Flight (MRF);

the Falcon operated by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR);

the Mystere belonging to the University of Pierre and Marie Curie Paris - Service d'Aeronomie (UPMC-SA).

Each aircraft was independently funded from national resources, which in the case of the C-130, was provided equally by the Met Office and NERC.

The C-130 was equipped with instrumentation for the measurement of many gas phase species and particulate quantities in addition to filter radiometers (see Table). The DLR Falcon was also extensively equipped and was able to extend the altitude range of some species above the ceiling of the C-130 (from 10 to 13 km). The Mystere was only equipped with a few in situ chemical sensors, but carried an airborne LIDAR, which was able to produce ozone cross-sections.

Data collected on board all 3 aircraft will be processed and quality controlled before being submitted to this central archive at BADC, within 6 months of collection (February 2001). This data is governed by a Data Protocol, which will allow it to be available to all participants whilst ensuring due credit is given to the providers. The data from the C-130 was made publicly accessible 2 years after collection (August 2002). The groups involved are the Universities of East Anglia, Cambridge, Leicester, Leeds, Reading and UPMC-SA, MRF, DLR, Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics - Heidelberg and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research.

The data held at BADC was collected during a co-ordinated 3 aircraft flying campaign in August 2000 based at Oberpfaffenhofen in Southern Germany. Measurements were made of many photochemical parameters including ozone, its precursors, other oxidants and both gas phase and particulate tracers in the air over Europe and that being transported eastwards out of Europe.