AIRBORNE METEOROLOGICAL STUDIES AT FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Although the small research team which operates the G- 109B at F.I.A.M.S. had to overcome many financial, technical, operational, bureaucratic obstacles and set backs during the last four years, the research seen as a whole has proven to be very valuable and, for the members of the group, most of the time quite enjoyable. The research team has proven that it is possible to achieve high quality data sets and scientific findings with a very moderate level of funding. The aircraft itself has proven to be a very reliable and extremely economical vehicle and its small size has only in a very few cases been a serious restriction. The instrumentation has proven its high quality by comparing the measurements with independent observations, as well as its ruggedness under hazardous conditions like low flying over the open ocean under high wind conditions or under very dusty and hot conditions in Australia's interior in summer, The Grob has become an indispensable research tool for meteorologists at F.I.A.M.S. and demonstrated its value and reliability by yielding results which under most circumstances could not reasonably have been obtained in any other way, particularly in extending the range and rate of monitoring in remote, inaccessible and non-uniform environments. There is no other way in which a sophisticated instrument-package can be transported while fully assembled and "ready to go," together with its scientific operators and utilized immediately on arrival at an area proposed for investigation. The aircraft constitutes the ideal bridge between local and remote sensing and offers many, otherwise earthbound meteorologists to sense physically (and personally) atmospheric variations in space and time.