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About enviscope

The company enviscope GmbH was formed in 1992 as a result of our scientific research on the topic “Distribution of Trace compounds in the Atmosphere”. The research was carried out as part of environmental research programmes at the Universities of Mainz and Frankfurt. During our studies and subsequent research we were able to gain extensive experience in the preparation, practice and evaluation of measurement campaigns at both the national and international level. These involved specially equipped research aircraft and vehicles as well as the research ships Polarstern and Meteor.

Our enthusiasm for such measurement activities, together with the conviction that, even in the field of scientific research, service functions will increasingly be delegated to outside companies, led us to establish enviscope GmbH with the aim of providing

” Service to the Natural Sciences “

Company Goals

enviscope has set itself the goal of adapting developments in the field of environmental research to the measurement and evaluation of measurement data according to the individual needs and requirements of our clients. Our team of scientists and technicians, together with a stable pool of consultants and extensive contacts to a wide range of research establishments provide an optimal basis for meeting the ever increasing technical requirements with specialist knowledge and experience.

Our primary goal was and still is to build up and serve a satisfied clientele through high quality, reliable performance. Only service carried out punctually and to the client’s satisfaction can create a solid basis for development in today’s business world. Since the establishment of enviscope 16 years ago we have been able to successfully realize these basic principles in the areas of

  • airborne measurements of environmentally relevant trace compounds;
  • ground based meteorological experiments;
  • development of measurement and analysis techniques.

Since the establishment of enviscope we carried out quite a number of airborne research projects to the fullest satisfaction of the groups involved. Within approximately 5 – 6 measurement campaigns per year we operated a variety of high sophisticated instrumentation both in platforms modified and operated by enviscope itself and in aircraft operated by other flight facilities. With the “enviscope-platforms” we are able to cover the full range of scientific interest between atmospheric boundary layer (Bell 206L), lower troposphere (Partenavia P68), and upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (Learjet 35A) by ourself.

Even though enviscope turned out to serve as a “Link between Science and Avionics” we also want to keep our feet firmly on the ground. For this reason we are also involved in the conception of analysis and sampling equipment, the establishment and equipping of measurement stations and also the practical realization of ground based measurements. To an increasing degree the demand on engineering work rises; engineering with respect to instrumentation as well as engineering with respect to aircraft modification. enviscope meets these demands with new CAD tools and accordingly new qualified personnel. The more specialized the client’s wish, the more interesting the problem is.

Qualifications and References

Our palette of services is the result of extensive experience gained during participation in numerous measurement programmes under the auspices of several international research projects. Alongside numerous national and international ground based measurement campaigns, enviscope has been involved in the following airborne measurement experiments:

  • Research flights undertaken as part of the EUROTRAC project ACE (Acidity in Cloud Experiments), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (bmbf);
  • Measurements on behalf of the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) in the smoke plume from the burning oil fields in Kuwait;
  • Intercomparisons of measurement instruments on flights with NASA in USA and Brazil;
  • Cloud measurement flights sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in co-operation with DLR as part of the field experiment CLEOPATRA (Cloud Experiment Oberpfaffenhofen and Transports);
  • Measurement flights as part of the EUROTRAC project TRACT (Transport of Pollutants over Complex Terrain), financed by the European Community;
  • Arctic flights during the research programme ARCTIC HAZE, a German-Russian project to investigate tropospheric trace compounds in the Arctic and running over several years;
  • Airborne measurement campaigns FELDEX and NORDEX of the Special Research Programme No. 233, “Chemistry and Physics of Hydrometeors”;
  • Measurement flights on behalf of the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research Leipzig (IfT) for cloud and radiation studies, running since 1993 on nearly yearly basis;
  • Airborne campaign POLSTAR 98 as part of the ozone research programme of the bmbf;
  • Realization and operation of an Air Chemistry Module for the airborne and ground-based measurement of atmospheric trace gases on behalf of the Institute for Meteorology und Climatology (IMK) of the Research Centre Karlsruhe (FZK), Germany;
  • Research flights within LACE (Lindenberg – Aerosol – Characterization – Experiment 1998) on behalf of the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig, Germany.
  • Integration and operation of water vapor instrumentation aboard the Russian research aircraft M55 Geophysica during INDOEX (Seychelles) and APE-THESEO (Ushaia, Argentina) campaigns on behalf of Institute of Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere, Stratosphere (ICG 1), Research Centre J�lich (FZJ), Germany;
  • Measurement flights for cloud and radiation studies during BBC (Baltex Bridge Campaigns) in the Netherlands and Great Britain, on behalf of IfT;
  • Airborne studies on biological aerosol during MOCIS 2001 on behalf of Institute for Atmospheric Physics (IPA) of Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany;
  • Validation campaign with Geophysika for the launched ESA Satelite ENVISAT in 2002 in Forli, Italy;
  • Realization and operation of halogen oxide instrumentation aboard M55 Geophysica during EuPLEx 2003 campaign, on behalf of ICG 1, FZJ;
  • Research flights between the Arctic and the Subtropics within 8 SPURT campaigns between 2001 and 2003, financed within the German Atmospheric Research Program AFO 2000;
  • UTOPIHAN-ACT campaigns 2002-2004, on behalf of Max Plack Institute for Chemistry Mainz (MPI-C) and financed within the 5th Framework programme of EC;
  • Research flights in the Black Forest Region and the Alpes within VERTIKATOR project to study vertical transport processes, financed by IMK, FZK and the German Meteorological Service (DWD);
  • Diurnal surveillance of radioactivity in the atmosphere as part of the IMIS (Integrated Measurement and Information System), on behalf of DWD since 2002;
  • Helicopter-borne cloud studies towing the Airborne Cloud Turbulence Observation System during WIN_HEX 2005 and 2006 financed by IfT;
  • Research flights over the Amazonian rainforest within the MPI-C funded GABRIEL project to study atmosphere-biosphere exchange and role of convective transport mechanism;
  • Research flights in desert regions of Morocco within the DFG funded experiment SAMUM 2006 with Partenavia P68B;
  • HOOVER, cross sectional flights in Europe to investigate oxidation mechanism in the upper troposphere;
  • Airborne studies in 2006, CIRRUS clouds and their environment, a joint Learjet experiment supported by MPI-CH, FZJ, ETH-Zürich, DLR, DFG (SFB 641 “Tropospheric Ice Phase”)

To perform these airborne experiments enviscope developed a comprehensive set of instrumentation in co-operation with the research institutes, adapted the instrumentation to a number of different platforms, and certified the designs for airborne operation according to the aeronautical regulations. In a total of more than 1600 flight hours scientific instrumentation especially designed for airborne use like

  • ACTOS, Airborne Cloud Turbulence Observation System, IfT Leipzig;
  • MOZNOy, NOy instrument for MOZAIC program, ICG-2 FZ Juelich;
  • MOCIS, MObile Cascade Impaction System, IPA Mainz;
  • SPARM, Stabilized Platform for Airborne Radiation Measurements, Ift Leipzig;
  • HALOX, HALogen OXide monitor, ICG-1 FZ Juelich;
  • Air Chemistry Module, a modular system to measure chemical parameters, IMK FZ Karlsruhe;
  • CARIBIC, Container and infrastructure for in-service flights of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, MPI-C Mainz;
  • CVI-Inlet, Aerosol-Inlet, Multi-Inlet, Uni-Inlet, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)-Université Blaise Pascal-Laboratoire de Météorologie Physique, IPA Mainz;
  • KNUFFI, external payload pod for EUFAR (European Fleet for Airborne Research), MeteoFrance;

prooved well aboard airborne platforms like

Iljushin Il-18 Cessna, types 207 and 208 Piper Chieftain
Dornier, types 128 and 228 Airship Tethered balloon
M55 Geophysica Learjet, types 35A and 36A Partenavia, types P68B, P68C, and P68 Observer
ATR 42 Airbus A340, 400 and 600 Bell 206L III