On Tuesday, we flew towards the Bothnian Sea – an exciting flight, especially because we could see sea ice from the aircraft! This time, we flew relatively high and reached an altitude of 5200 m – the highest altitude we have flown so far during this campaign. The reason for this? The clouds reached 5000 m, and we aimed to fly above them so our instruments could better detect them.
Fortunately, the clouds broke up just enough to give us a breathtaking view of the Bothnian Sea. As you can imagine, Mika was thrilled and immediately climbed into the glass dome of Polar 5 to enjoy the 360° view. But safety first – we had to secure him there, otherwise, he might have jumped around in excitement after discovering the sea ice.
It was really impressive to see the Bothnian Sea from above, with Finland on one side and Sweden on the other. On the way back, we got to see another treat: Lenticularis clouds, which form when moist air flows over mountains and is pushed to higher altitudes in wave-like patterns. As the air rises in these waves and cools down as a result, clouds form on the ridges, which are smooth and lenticular. Overall, we had a very nice flight!
Our next day will be different, as we will visit a special place here in Kiruna, so stay tuned!

Hej, it’s great that you’re still following us! Totally worth it, because Polar 5 started its next research flight with our crew today at shortly after 12 UTC.
Mika was of course very excited again and was the first to fasten his seat belt because he could hardly wait to take off again.
Today’s track took us northwest over the Lofoten Islands to underfly EarthCARE over the sea. By the way, on the map you can see today’s flight track as well as those of the first two flights. Cool, isn’t it? The western straight sections from north to south are always the sections where we underfly EarthCARE. The small squares are so-called radiation squares, which are used to calibrate the radiation measuring device “albedometer” in conditions without clouds above the aircraft.
We are slowly settling into a routine for operating the instruments and the procedures, but what you can see from the plane is of course still breathtaking! The view from the small glass dome on the ceiling of the plane was particularly beautiful today.
The conditions were great. At first we had clear skies and were able to enjoy the view of the winter wonderland snow-covered mountains until we reached a large cloud cover, above which we then had great measuring conditions for our campaign.

Tomorrow will be the fourth flight, this time towards the Bothnian Sea, which is still partly covered in sea ice. We’re sure it will be great.
So, stay tuned 🙂

Our second flight took us south of Kiruna over land before heading towards Pallas, where a Cloudnet station is located.This is great as we can compare the measurements from the Cloudnet station with our airborne measurements, which is good for validation. Science can be so nice! Although we were not entirely sure if we would find many clouds along our flight path before takeoff, we actually had a very interesting case with lots of clouds and also clear sky conditions. The EarthCARE match took place when there were only a few clouds and some snow on the surface, which is very interesting for the validation. So we managed to fly the EarthCARE track right during a nice transition from cloudy to clear sky conditions. This time Mika was very interested in what the spectrometers measured during our flight. Feeling a little tired, Mika made himself comfortable on Christian’s shoulder, curious about what he was doing—or maybe just wanting a better view out the window. All in all, it was a pleasant flight with some lovely clouds and beautiful views out the window!

Next up: tomorrow’s flight towards the Norwegian coast—low-level cloud conditions are looking promising again, so stay tuned!

Yesterday, some of us took our first flight with Polar 5. The prospects were great because, according to the satellite image, our planned flight track would even lead through a cold air outbreak! So, the anticipation was already high. After some preparations in the hangar and a safety briefing from the pilot, Kyle, the crew could settle into the aircraft. Luggage was stowed, devices switched on, seatbelts fastened, and at 11:03 UTC, we were ready for takeoff. On our way north to turn over the Norwegian/Barents Sea onto the track of the EarthCare satellite, we flew over beautiful snowy landscapes and low clouds. After Mika was quite nervous during takeoff, he didn’t want to leave the window; he was so impressed by the view! After most of the measurements had already been initiated at the beginning of the flight, we also started the lidar measurements over the sea. We also launched several dropsondes along the satellite’s path, which record vertical wind, humidity, and temperature profiles on their way to the ground. Now, we were flying on the trajectory that the satellite would cross during this period, and our underflight was successful: The satellite flew directly overhead. It’s a match! This is also indicated by the dot in the satellite’s radar measurements, which represents our aircraft. We landed shortly after 16 UTC with good measurements and some great impressions.
The next flight will take place on Sunday. Stay tuned!