Science - May 15, 2012

Zeppelin comes to Wageningen

One fine day, a Zeppelin fully equipped with measuring instruments will fly across Wageningen. This could happen this week or the next, depending on the weather.

The zeppelin in this case is the Pegasos, a 75-metre long airship used by scientists, including some from Wageningen, to conduct research into the relationship between air quality and climate change. The Pegasos left yesterday from its home base in the German town of Friedrichshaven to fly along the Rhine valley to Rotterdam. It is expected to arrive at about 4 p.m. today.
Binnenveld
The zeppelin will remain for two weeks in the Netherlands. Besides going to the Rijnmond area, the North Sea and the Cabauw meteorological mask in Utrecht, the airship is also scheduled to come to Wageningen, according to atmospheric researcher Laurens Ganzeveld (Earth System Science and Climate Change Group). If the weather permits, the zeppelin will fly above the meteorological station of Wageningen UR in the Binnenveld.
50 metres
That would be a spectacular sight, says Ganzeveld. The zeppelin is allowed to fly fifty metres (150 feet) above the ground. This gives scientists a good opportunity to correlate measurements taken on the ground with those in the air column just above the station. The zeppelin is part of the European research project PEGASOS, which stands for Pan-European Gas-AeroSOls climate-interaction Study. The project aims to get a better understanding of the relationship between chemical processes in the air and climate change. You can follow the zeppelin and the Pegasos project on http://www.eu-pegasos.blogspot.com/