Met Office Met. Research Flight C-130: Airborne atmospheric measurements

The Met. Research Flight (MRF) was a Met Office facility, which operated a well instrumented C-130 Hercules (also referred to as Mk.2 Hercules) aircraft for research purposes. The C-130 was in service from 1972 to 2001 and flew over 1800 research sorties. The large capacity and long endurance of this platform made it ideal for atmospheric research in the areas of cloud physics, atmospheric radiation, atmospheric chemistry, satellite activities, mesoscale meteorology and boundary layer studies.

The BADC holds data collected by the C-130 during NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) funded flights, such as those made during ACSOE (Atmospheric Chemistry Studies in the Oceanic Environment) and UTLS (Upper Troposphere - Lower Stratosphere) projects. The basic set of measurements include ozone, nitrogen oxides, water vapour, aerosols, wind, position and temperature. These are often supplemented by project specific measurements.

The aircraft was able to operate scientifically throughout the troposphere from a minimum altitude of 15 m (50 ft) where permitted, up to a maximum of 10 km. The aircraft had a maximum working flight time of 12 hours.

The C-130 was taken out of service in March 2001 and a new joint NERC-Met Office Facility for Airborne Aircraft Measurements (FAAM) was established operating a BAe-146-301 aircraft.

Date (Publication): 2006-12-10T03:09:18

Date (Creation): 2006-12-10T03:09:18

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/605b99a139b1162de6a1096a11b0a8b4

Citation identifier: NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC) / 605b99a139b1162de6a1096a11b0a8b4

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Met Office		enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk	Author
Unavailable	Tiddeman, David	Unavailable	Author
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Custodian
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	pointofContact
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Unknown

Update scope: Series

Keywords

Met Office
atmosphere
chemistry
airborne
C-130

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Please contact the data centre for assistance on accessing data from this dataset collection.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Other constraints: Under the following licence https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/licences/specific_licences/ukmo_agreement.pdf, appropriate use of these data may fall under academic use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Other constraints: Under the following licence https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/licences/specific_licences/ukmo_agreement_gov.pdf, appropriate use of these data may fall under policy use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 1993-05-17T07:29:54

End date: 2001-03-26T23:00:00

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Contact data centre for format details.

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/605b99a139b1162de6a1096a11b0a8b4	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://arsf.nerc.ac.uk/	Airborne Research and Survey Facility (ARSF)

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://www.faam.ac.uk/	Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://arsf.nerc.ac.uk/index.asp?cookieConsent=A	NERC Airborne Research & Survey Facility

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://zenodo.org/record/7356578	Meteorological Research Flight (MRF) A258, 259, 260

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://zenodo.org/record/7356584	Meteorological Research Flight (MRF) - Flight reports A257-A260

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/mrf/mrf_help.html	MRF Background information by BADC

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/mrf/Summary_of_Capability.html	MRF Mk.2 HERCULES Summary of Capability

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://zenodo.org/record/7356618	TIGER Meteorological Research Flight - May/June 1993 - Winds

Hierarchy level: Series

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Please see data lineage statements for each dataset within this collection for data lineage details.

Metadata

File identifier: 605b99a139b1162de6a1096a11b0a8b4 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Hierarchy level: Series

Hierarchy level name: series

Date stamp: 2025-12-04T03:26:09

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Point of contact

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