Campaign logbook
Contents
Campaign logbook¶
Saturday 11th October¶
An early start today for the team! SAFIRE opened at 5:30 in the morning to power up the ATR42 and allow for CHARM-F and Picarro heating phase. After last checking and some coffee with croissants, the go was received from Spanish ATC. Take-off happened at 8:00, for a 4-hour flight back and forth to Barcelona.
SAFIRE ATR42 at Francazal airport in the early morning © S. Wolff and C. Crevoisier, 2025
On the way, amazing views over the Pyrenees mountains… while enjoying some sweets from SAFIRE crew. :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:
The Pyrenees seen from SAFIRE ATR42 © S. Wolff and C. Crevoisier, 2025
The strong wind was blowing along the coast line, yielding a well-established plume of CO2 and CH4. Today targets included: Barcelona Power Station, TERSA incineration plant, Holcim cement plant, Almacen steel factory, Molins cement plant.
Several spikes of XCH4 were seen by CHARM-F in the Southern corner of the box flight, while a constant layer of aerosol was detected over all the area by LiVe at 1.5km.
After 2 hours of flight of Barcelona and a perfect coordination between the pilots and Barcelona AATC, the ATR42 went North for a 45 trip back to Francazal airport.
Barcelona city and the LNG terminal at the harbour seen from SAFIRE ATR42 © C. Crevoisier and S. Wolff, 2025
Meanwhile, Gerfaut Dynamic WT9 took-off from Madrid at 8:56 to land at Barcelona at 12:11, refuel and then took-off again for a 3-hour flight. Two vertical profiles were measured at the beginning and the end of the flight. The rest of the flight was devoted to several parallel legs South-West of the ATR42 track in order to catch the CO2/CH4 plume.
All in all, a great day that marks the halfway point of the campaign.