The primary objective of the European eXport of Precursors and Ozone by long-Range Transport (EXPORT) project is to characterise and quantify the photochemical air pollution both forming over Europe and being exported eastwards from Europe. The data held at BADC was collected during a co-ordinated 3 aircraft flying campaign in August 2000 based at Oberpfaffenhofen in Southern Germany. Measurements were made of many photochemical parameters including ozone, its precursors, other oxidants and both gas phase and particulate tracers in the air over Europe and that being transported eastwards out of Europe.

This dataset contains airborne atmospheric and chemistry measurements taken on board the Met Office C-130 Hercules aircraft flight A771 for the EXPORT project. The flight was from Boscombe to Oberpfaffenhofen.

The main aim of the flight was to transit from Boscombe Down to Oberpfaffenhofen. However, it was also the first, and only, opportunity to test the recently refitted instruments. In particular, it had been requested that the peroxide instrument should be tested at altitude, in order to check for leaks.

The flight did not get of to a good start, as power was lost, due to the GPU running out of fuel. A faulty oxygen regulator was then noted, which had to be repaired before take-off. We delayed slightly and a full warm-up of the NOxy was not achievable but the operator was happy to go on the basis that it was a test flight.

The flight showed up a few problems: the peroxide lost flow on ascent to FL190; the CN counter kept switching off; the Leeds GC (ORAC) was noisy and there were spikes on the JO1D and jNO2 lower radiometers. All in all it was a useful test; giving confidence in most of the instruments.