The goal is to transfer the necessary knowledge from AT to FEM to operate and manage airborne campaigns under various and complex circumstances. Such transfer will include knowledge and experience on major certification procedures that are required for the installation of new

equipment and sensors on aircraft.

This WP will consider specific actions for knowledge transfer from the private to the public organization. It will be implemented through secondment of staff of FEM to the private organization and by recruitment at AT. AT will actually share its large experience with seconded staff of the public organization as far as aircraft service are concerned. Seconded staff will participate in the preparation of airborne missions thus learning how the discussion is actually conducted and what are the major problems arising during such planning phase. After that, they will take part in the execution phase during which, properly assisted by the AT staff and the recruited personnel, they will be able to participate in the campaign, also as flying operators. This will not be possible since the beginning of the collaboration, but it will likely be realized after an initial training period on the ground. Overall, the implementation of WP1 will require the contribution of two young staff members of FEM for a total of 12 person-months of secondment and 6 person-months of recruited AT staff.

DL.1.1 – AIRFORS REPORT I: Summary report on Aircraft Operations & Fleet Management.

This document will highlight the new knowledge that will be transferred to the FEM seconded personnel. It will have a descriptive nature mainly addressing a general public and the public administration that will eventually will be on the end-user and beneficiaries of the project.

Permanent AT staff plus recruited ER. Candidates for FEM personnel secondment include expert in optical RS, in Optical + Lidar and in organization, logistics and management.

No major risks associated to this WP. Technology Transfer actions will be made following a simple operational strategy with seconded personnel mainly following activities and campaigns that will be executed both in the frame of this project and for commercial services offered by the SME. In the case of the lack of substantial activity during the period of secondment, this will be re-organized or will be mae to work on existing dataset, with a specific focus on data processing.

Start date or starting event: 1

Work package title: Forest monitoring and assessment techniques

Beneficiary short name: FEM, AT

The objective is here to train AT personnel seconded at FEM on the most recent development of RS applications in forest science and RS applications to forest monitoring.

This WP is designed to enable the AT personnel that will be seconded to acquire specific experience on the conventional methodologies used for forest monitoring and assessment. For this, they will take active part in a series of experiments and measurement campaign which are made in the field, also in the frame of other project. The host currently manages three main experimental field sites where flux data are routinely acquired using up-to-date flux measurement techniques. The person seconded by the SME will participate in data acquisition operation and will learn how to deal with data processing and analysis, getting acquainted to the processing software and related procedures. This is an important area of knowledge transfer as it will actually provide new skill to the private partner in view of future airborne missions on forest monitoring.

In addition, seconded staff will take part in a series of forest sampling operations in view of acquiring new knowledge that will become later on crucial for the execution/implementation of airborne measurement campaigns. The personnel recruited by host will serve as guidance and tutoring for the seconded personnel. Secondment will involve 12 person-months over the duration of the project, while recruitment will use a total of 18 months.

DL 2.1 - AIRFORS REPORT II: Extending airborne capabilities for forest monitoring and assessment.

Permanent FEM staff plus recruited ER. Candidates for AT personnel secondment will be selected within a small group of candidates at the time of the project kick-off and in the following months.

No major risks associated to this WP. Technology Transfer actions will be made following a simple operational strategy with seconded personnel mainly following activities and campaigns that will be executed both in the frame of this project and for institutional or project-based field campaigns of FEM.

Start date or starting event: 1

Work package title: Airborne Lidar operations

Beneficiary short name: FEM, AT

To transfer major actions which are necessary to operate Lidar systems in airborne application.

Seconded staff of FEM will be focused, during part of their stay in Austria, on the Lidar acquisition systems owned by AT. Senior AT staff member, but also in part the recruited staff will be devoted to this task. WP implementation will consider some activity on the ground to learn basic operations of the instrumentation, and to acquire sufficient basic knowledge on the acquisition and management of aircraft attitude data that are a crucial aspect of data processing for Lidar georeferencing. After this initial phase, the seconded staff will participate in operational missions and campaigns, possibly linked to the missions already foreseen in WP1. During those missions, they will acquire sufficient skill to properly operate the instrumentation and they will learn the most critical aspect of instrument handling and "in-flight" acquisition setup. The final part of WP3 will be devoted to data processing with the ultimate goal of providing the capability to the seconded staff to operate this crucial phase of a Lidar campaign. Secondment will involve 8 person-months and recruitment will use 4 person-months.

DL 3.1 AIRFORS REPORT III: Airborne Lidar operations: current perspectives and limitations.

Permanent AT staff plus recruited ESR. Candidates for FEM personnel secondment include expert in optical RS, in Optical + Lidar and in organization, logistics and management.

The WP may undergo to serious divergence in case AT will no have committement for Lidar deployement and use during the AIRFORS reporting period or if the activity committed will be become insufficient. In this unlikely event, AT and FEM will work together to develop on-site Lidar test to allow the required knowledge transfer.

Start date or starting event: 1

Work package title: Atmospheric measurement techniques

Beneficiary short name: AT, FEM

Knowledge transfer to develop and acquire new experience and aircraft setup to perform atmospheric measurements (fluxes and concentrations).

This WP is designed to knowledge transfer from FEM to AT. FEM scientists have specific experience on this type of measurements, gained in the frame of past collaboration with CNR scientists. On the other hand, AT doesn’t have any specific experience on atmospheric measurements that are becoming a reality and are foreseen to develop further in the next few years. The WP will focus on turbulence measurements as well as on new airborne sensor/instrumentation that can be used for unprecedented airborne measurements. As for turbulence, we expect AT seconded staff to become acquainted with the operation principles of the “Best Aircraft Turbulence” (BAT) probe capable of measuring the velocity of air with respect to aircraft, using a hemispherical 9-hole pressure sphere recording static and dynamic pressures by means of four differential pressure transducers. The activity planned includes the use of the BAT probe, that is currently available to FEM, through FoxLab and field exercises for data retrieval and basic processing using the proprietary software available at FEM. The dual airborne instrument for δ13C and δ18O measurement in the atmosphere (Picarro), will be also part of the knowledge transfer activity under this WP. To implement this WP, some equipment will become necessary to AT, to implement atmospheric monitoring capabilities on the TECNAM MMA aircraft that will be made available to AIRFORS.

Implementation of atmospheric measurement techniques in twin-engine aicrafts.

Permanent AT staff plus recruited ER. Candidates for FEM personnel secondment include expertises on data acquisition and processing, airborne flux measurements, and requires the involvement of specialists and technicians with experience in ground and airborne equipment setup.

The implementation of the WP relies on the availability of the instrumentation for installation on the aircraft (provided by FEM and associated organizations) and the procedures to obtain the necessary EASA certification for the modification of the TECNAM MMA aircraft of AT. This aspect will be considered since the start of the project activities and identified in one of the project’s milestones. AIRFORS expects this risk to be minimized, due to the involvement of AT, which is now a sufficiently long experience in aircraft modifications and setup to carry new instruments and observation apparatus.

Start date or starting event: 1

Work package title: Joint Airborne campaigns

Beneficiary short name: AT, FEM

To execute joint airborne campaigns for atmospheric measurements and combined optical/laser RS.

Two major joint airborne campaigns will be made in the frame of AIRFORS to evaluate and test the results of the planned activity one for atmospheric and one for surface measurements, focused on forest monitoring. The atmospheric campaign will use the tunable laser diode analyser that will be installed in one of the aircraft provided by AT and operated jointly by seconded and recruited personnel of AIRFORS and assisted by senior scientists/operators of both organizations. The execution of the campaign will be based on external funding provided by the public organization in the frame of the activity planned by the FoxLab department, also in collaboration with the Italian National Research Council (CNR). The study will try to partition the contribution of photosynthesis and respiration in the biospheric flux of a selected study area in a large and homogeneous forest area to be still identified. The second campaign will instead tentatively address one of the most important aspect of Lidar applications in forest science, i.e. the use of laser scanning techniques to measure and map forest biomass on a large scale. The study area, depending on the funding available will be in a mountainous region and covered by uneven-aged forest around the town of Lavarone (Trentino district), Italy. The topography is moderately complex, there, ranging from 1,200 to 1,600 meters above the sea level. Forest tree species present include Silver Fir, Norway spruce, Beech, Larch, Scots pine and other less common species. Forest structure is obviously rather complex. The LIDAR data will be acquired by the SME using the Riegl sensor installed on twin-engine multi-mission aircraft. The mean posting density will be

adequate and superior to what commonly used in forest inventory systems based on Lidar sensing. Ground-truth data will be used for subsequent validation of acquired data and will include i) stem volumes of trees calculated from more than 30 plots distributed over the study area, ii) stem

volumes of 6 stands of variable dimension collected by the Forest Service of the Province of Trento for the provincial forest inventory. GIS will be used to georeference ground-truth data points. The planned campaigns will be eventually integrated with the COST ACTION ES0903 SSOS (Summer School on Optical Sampling). SSOS will include both ground optical measurements and a flight campaign run by FEM and the Univ. of Edinburgh (School of Geosciences) and NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility (FSF) . During this summer school, experts and scientists will train young researchers on the state of the art of optical sampling instruments and measurement protocols. Also, ground data will be used to validate the aircraft data. The

possibility to jointly operate airborne campaigns in equatorial Africa is also included in this WP, but the feasibility of this type of more demanding campaign will heavily depend on the funding that will eventually become available from the ERC project coordinated by the EuroMediterranean

Centre for Climate Change operating in Italy. An important joint campaign will be made in the frame of AIRFORS to evaluate and test the results of the activity planned. Picarro Tunable Laser Diode analysers for stable isotopic composition of the atmosphere (δ13C e δ18O) will be installed in one of the aircraft provided by the SME and operate jointly by seconded and recruited personnel of AIRFORS and assisted by senior scientists/operators of both organizations. This approach will provided unprecedent data on atmospheric profiles of stable isotope relative abundances that will be later interpreted to fractionate photosynthetic and respiratory component of terrestrial ecosystems. The execution of the campaign will be based on external funding provided by the public organization in the frame of the activity planned by the FoxLab department, also in collaboration with the Italian National Research Council (CNR). The study will try to partition the contribution of photosynthesis and respiration in the biospheric flux of a selected study area in a large and homogeneous forest area to be still identified.

This second campaign will tentatively address one of the most important aspect of Lidar applications in forest science, i.e. the use of laser scanning techniques to measure and map forest biomass on a large scale. The study area will be in a mountainous region and covered by unevenaged forest around the town of Lavarone (Trentino district), Italy. The topography is moderately complex, there, ranging from 1,200 to 1,600 meters above the sea level. Forest tree species present include Silver Fir, Norway spruce, Beech, Larch, Scots pine and other less common species. Forest structure is obviously rather complex. The LIDAR data will be acquired by the SME using the Riegl sensor installed on twin-engine multi-mission aircraft. The mean posting density will be adequate and superior to what commonly used in forest inventory systems based on Lidar sensing. Ground-truth data will be used for subsequent validation of acquired data and will include in particular stem volumes of trees. In particular FEM can provide its experience in data elaboration and in particular in the definition of appropriate ground sampling protocol.

Data set from JAC_I and JAC_II - Joint Airborne Campaigns and eventually from the ERC-Project GHG-Africa

Permanent AT staff plus recruited ER. Candidates for FEM personnel secondment include expertises on data acquisition and processing, airborne flux measurements, and requires the involvement of specialists and technicians with experience in ground and airborne equipment setup.

The execution of the joint airborne campaign relies on external funding which has been already partly secured by FEM. The activity in Africa will be instead built upon a CMCC contract that has not been yet signed by AT. If those additional fundings will become available, the activity will be included in this WP. In case of problems, most of the work planned under this WP will concentrate on dedicated campaigns that will be made both in Italy and in Austria, that will eventually lead to the acquisition of sufficient data.

Start date or starting event: 12

Work package title: Promotion and Dissemination

Beneficiary short name: AT, FEM

To create a coordinated FEM-AT team to promote the joint actvities and expertise sharing between the two organizations and eventually conceive a public-private partnership.

This WP will be focussed on the dissemination of the results. One FEM scientist will be seconded to AT for periods and specifically devoted to develop proper actions to interact with the most important media of the alpine region. Secondment will ensure that every action will be made in

perfect agreement between the two AIRFORS partners, also respecting IPR. The overall objective to be achieved in this WP is that of presenting AIRFORS activities as an example of private-public cooperation in the area of environmental science as well as to promote the idea of new instrumentation and new capacity building for future airborne campaigns and scientific activities in the region. In this way, we expect AIRFORS to contribute to the long-term vision of this publicprivate collaboration which is highlighted in the relevant section B.5.3.

A summary/synthesis of dissemination events, media communications and printed/electronic material that will be produce through the project.

Mainly Project PIs, that will be responsible for dissemination actions, communication and promotional events throughout the duration of the AIRFORS project.

No major risks associated to this WP.