CARIBIC: Results and Status of the Aircraft Research Project CARIBIC

The deployment of passenger aircraft for carrying out atmospheric chemistry measurements has an enormous potential that neatly fills the gap between capabilities of research aircraft and of satellites. Research aircraft give detailed information, in particular for short to ultra-short lived species, whereas satellite based remote sensing equipment provide a true global picture. Both methods are known to be expensive. The regular flight schedules of long range aircraft allow a systematic collection of a large range of data of considerable detail at lower cost.