Geoscientific Earth Observation with HALO in the Aegean region (GEOHALO)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Alain Geiger; Dr.-Ing. Mirko Scheinert
• Subject Area: Atmospheric Science
• Term: from 2010 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 179734605

The goal of this proposal is the realization of the GEOHALO mission. For this, HALO shall be installed with a coordinated and complementary suite of geodetic-geophysical instrumentation, including gravity meters, magnetometers, GNSS antennas and receivers, INS, and a laser altimeter. The GEOHALO mission shall demonstrate the feasibility and performance of this instrumentation on board HALO to realize airborne measurements of the potential field quantities (gravimetry and magnetometry), GNSS direct and indirect (reflected) measurements, and laser distance measurements. The performance of the different techniques has to be proven under flight conditions, which will be considerably different to those of (smaller) aircrafts usually utilized for airborne geophysics so far. Utilizing the long-range capability of HALO the GEOHALO mission shall be realized to cover the extended area of interest within three days of measurement flights. Overall, the proposed project pursues a completely novel application of geodetic-geophysical instrumentation to be working on a moving platform such as HALO. From the GEOHALO observations we will determine geoscientific quantities in the Aegean region in order to gain a better understanding of the Hellenic subduction zone and the North-Anatolian fault zone, and to improve the gravity and magnetic fields, which provide important constraints on the investigation of the lithospheric structure and plate kinematics.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1294: Atmospheric and Earth System Research with the "High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft" (HALO)
• International Connection: Switzerland