Cal/Val campaign for ESA's AEOLUS mission

From 10 to 30 June the Cyprus Institute contributed to the Aeolus campaign and to the University of Reading DAZSAL ATMO-ACCESS project. The USRL_CyI Skywalker and CoBi drones are being used in Sao Vicente, Cape Verde, to carry the POPS, UCASS and COBALD sensors inside the Saharan Air Layer located at 2-5,000 m altitude, to measure Saharan dust particle size distribution from 0.1 to 50 um and particle orientation. This activity is coordinated with the National Observatory of Athens, carrying out ground-based remote sensing using the advanced Wall-E and eVe lidars, and sending radiosondes with special sensors for dust electrification. The Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research also contributes with specialized observations, and the Spanish National Research Council is also performing ground-based observation at the nearby Santo Antao island, at an altitude of 1,400 m. The campaign is sponsored by the European Space Agency and is dedicated to cal/val of the Aeolus satellite, and to studying the diurnal cycle of dust particle size distribution. A major dust event was sampled from 18 to 20 June and a new event is currently being sampled.