According to the German Embassy in Nicosia, the aim is to get improved air quality and the climate change reports.

The research mission, dubbed OMO, will analyze the changes of self-purification in the atmosphere with regard to the influence of Asian monsoons.

Professor Dr. Jos Lelieveld, scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute and since 2008 professor at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, and his 65-strong team of atmospheric researchers are carrying out the research mission.

In total they plan a trip of 100.000 kilometres and 120 hours of flight: The special research airplane HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft) will start from Cyprus to do analysis above the Arab peninsula and the Arab sea.

The measurements, which are mainly taken in the troposphere and the lower stratosphere, allow the team to analyse the ozone chemistry and the exchange of air pollutants.

Following, the airplane, its crew and the team will head to the Maldives to analyse the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean and the Bay of the Bengal. Before the researchers and the airplane are returning to Germany, the mission will stop again in Cyprus for a few days in August 2015.

Source: Famagusta Gazette