EOS is a twin-engine Cessna 340A, rigged with a comprehensive suite of scientific instrumentation, supported by a sophisticated data acquisition system and real-time data viewing facilities. Given that a full description of the aircraft and its systems is beyond the scope of this text, we here summarize the information relevant to the current study, beginning with the performance characteristics of EOS.
In addition to standard aviation and meteorological instrumentation, EOS supports a suite of fast and sensitive temperature and humidity sensors for the determination of heat and moisture fluxes by the eddy-correlation method. A 5-hole nosecone pressure port system enables accurate measurement of the relative wind vector. This data is combined with accelerations and attitude angles from a ring laser Inertial Navigation System (INS) and latitude/longitude data from a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, in order to determine the 3-dimensional wind vector to a high precision. This core set of instrumenta- tion is further augmented by a system of short- and long-wave up- and down-ward facing radiometers, the combination of which gives net radiation, as well as radiometers for measuring surface temperature and vegetation index. An open-path H2O/CO2 gas analyser on loan from NOAA/ATD provided an invaluable backup service for the resident fast hygrometer (other air chemistry sensors are also under development for the future). Finally, a video camera is mounted inside the cockpit to allow continuous recording of visual data.
Information regarding the instrumentation available aboard EOS during the time of the TOGA COARE flights is listed below. Figure 1 indicates the placement of instrumentation on the aircraft.
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