Air Canada has announced that one of its Airbus A330 aircraft has been outfitted with special diagnostics sensors in partnership with In-Service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS), an international non-profit organization that utilizes commercial aircraft as a global observation platform of climate change and air quality. This collaboration will allow IAGOS to collect valuable worldwide data on climate parameters, which will be used by the international scientific community as well as forecasting services like the Atmosphere Service of Copernicus, for essential research on climate change and air quality on a global scale.
As part of the partnership, Air Canada has installed IAGOS’s state-of-the-art climate research monitoring devices on Fin 939, one of its A330-300 widebody aircraft. The device will measure a range of parameters, including ozone, water vapour, greenhouse gases, reactive gases, aerosols, clouds, etc. during various stages of flight, including take-off, cruising altitude and landing.
The A330, one of only two aircraft types approved for the IAGOS systems along with the A340, flies a mix of trans-Atlantic and trans-continental flights for Air Canada, providing key data for IAGOS.
The IAGOS device is a compact system featuring measuring probes which are permanently installed on the aircraft, near the flight deck. After each flight, the measurement data is automatically transmitted to the central database of the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) research centre in Toulouse, France.
According to IAGOS, commercial aircraft provide an ideal platform for gathering trace gas measurements, as they can efficiently measure at high altitudes where collecting samples is otherwise challenging. IAGOS is working with airlines worldwide and this will allow for the validation of global climate models and provide near real-time data in an open-source manner to researchers around the world. The research findings are freely accessible and currently utilized by approximately 300 global organizations.
Air Canada has set an ambitious goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) throughout its global operations by 2050. To reach this, Air Canada has set absolute midterm GHG net reduction targets by 2030 in its air and ground operations compared to its 2019 baseline and has committed to investing $50 Million in Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), and carbon reductions and removals research and development.