The British Antarctic Survey has a Twin Otter VP-FAZ aircraft, operated by NERC-ARF. It is a high-wing, twin-engine, turbo-prop aircraft designed to operate in remote environments and is easily modified to fit scientific instrumentation.
It possesses a certified fit of airborne atmospheric instrumentation suitable for atmospheric, boundary layer and cloud/aerosol studies and a multi-sensor payload typically consisting of a LiDAR, hyperspectral systems (VNIR, SWIR and LWIR) and a digital camera. The instrument suite includes standard temperature and water vapour sensors as well as a turbulence probe allowing full atmospheric profile measurements of temperature, dew point and winds. A DMT Cloud and aerosol spectrometer (CAPS) probe is used for cloud studies. Other standard PMS pod instruments can easily be accommodated. There is also a closed path Licor H2O/CO2 instrument, Grimm optical particle counter and cloud condensation nuclei counter fed from simple Rosemount inlets.