FAAM is the result of a collaboration between the Met Office(TM) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and has been established as part of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) to provide an aircraft measurement platform for use by all the UK atmospheric research community on campaigns throughout the world. The modified BAE 146 aircraft (jet type) is owned by BAE Systems and operated for them by Directflight. The Home Base is at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire.

The FAAM BAE 146 aircraft allows for in-situ measurements taken by core and non-core instruments onboard the aircraft. The in-situ measurements will then be transported to the research organisations' respective laboratory for analysis