The DIAMET Project

Introduction

One of the main aims of the DIAMET Research Project is to improve our understanding of scientific processes within the atmosphere. This should then lead to an improvement in the accuracy of weather forecasts, especially the forecasting of severe weather events.

One way in which the DIAMET scientists collect weather data in real time is to use a specially designed research aircraft which can fly directly into storms. It’s operated by NERC (The Natural Environment Research Council) and the Met Office and can carry different instruments and experiments which allow scientists to characterise large scale storms.

Scientists can then use this information in different ways, including helping the Met Office improve the supercomputer’s simulations of how the atmosphere works, and also the way weather observations are used as starting data.

The aircraft carries a large variety of instruments which can measure temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, cloud droplet size, the number of cloud droplets, whether they are liquid (water) or solid (ice), sea surface temperature, cloud height, ozone, carbon monoxide and much more.