Zeppelin findings
The zeppelin used for atmospheric research arrived in Finland on 1 May 2013 and has since made around ten successful research flights to collect aerosol samples.
Photo: Maija Pollari.
The researchers involved have put in long days because the research equipment on board the zeppelin must be changed and inspected before each flight.
According to Hanna Manninen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki’s Department of Physics, the measurement results provide new information.
“They describe more clearly the areas of influence of anthropogenic and natural particle sources as well as the differences between them,” explains Manninen, who works at the Division of Atmospheric Sciences. “Such information is extremely useful when further defining atmospheric models, which, in turn, help us understand climate change better.”
The zeppelin flights are part of an extensive European atmospheric research initiative. The University of Helsinki, together with the European Community, has been equipping the airship. The airship will return to the Continent in mid-June, but work on the measurement results will continue for years.
Read the whole article by Mai Allo at University of Helsinki News. Research findings will be presented in an open seminar: The Zeppelin in Atmospheric Research at University of Helsinki’s Department of Physics 31 May. Video footage and descriptions of the nearly one-hundred-meter-long zeppelin, buoyed by helium, will be available at the event, but the airship itself will not make an appearance.
