Question: What exactly have you done with air crafts, and how difficult was it?

Oleg Kozhura answered on 4 Jul 2025:

I work at the FAAM Airborne Laboratory, where we operate a specially adapted BAE-146 aircraft fitted with a whole range of instrumentation that allows us to study the atmosphere. We capture the air during flight for analysis on board and in the lab, measure electromagnetic radiation, take snapshots of small cloud particles to see how clouds form, drop sondes on little parachutes that allow us to measure the air temperature, pressure, wind speed & direction, as well as humidity. We also perform other measurements, but it’d be too long to list them all! 😀
In my role, I work with scientists and researchers in order to develop new instrumentation that can be fitted on the aircraft. One of the examples is a one-of-a-kind lidar that will tell us how the air moves under the aircraft as we fly. It’ll help us study hazardous weather conditions and the movement of pollutants.

Installation of new instruments on board the aircraft is complex, as there are many safety regulations and aviation standards which we must follow, but it is also rewarding, as you know that the science we do is important and impactful, for example, in the areas of air pollution and climate change.