Presentation
In the summer of 2024, CAE’s Lidar team will be flying the very first airborne meteorological Raman lidar capable of measuring air temperature and humidity on board the SAFIRE (Service des avions français de recherche atmosphérique) ATR-42 aircraft, as part of the MAESTRO (Mesoscale organisation of tropical convection) project.
This instrument, the result of 10 years of research and development at LSCE, installed behind a side window, will only be able to measure variations in temperature and humidity on its line of sight, in addition to the quantity of aerosols in suspension. However, aboard an aircraft equipped with in-situ sensors, it will be able to map the precise atmospheric conditions that give rise to tropical storms over the Cape Verde islands over a wide area.
The MAESTRO ERC project aims to reveal the physical processes that control the mesoscale organisation of convection over tropical oceans and to understand how the organisation of convection impacts the Earth’s radiation budget through water vapour and clouds. It is led by Sandrine Bony from the LMD, a specialist in cloud formation.