European Dimension

The ICTS-PAI is part of the European consortium of instrumented aircraft for environmental research, EUFAR (European Facility for Airborne Research). EUFAR is supported by the European Commission through the Framework Programmes for R&D, it is made up of 24 operators from 11 countries and since 2011, through the transnational access or TA, funds the implementation of proposals that pass a selection process, covering the costs to access the aircraft and the instruments offered by its operators, who are also consortium members.

The current European scenario, dominated by the EUFAR2 program of FP7 that will finish on 2018, according to the recommendations of the European Commission, will lead to a new colaboration model based on the creation of the AISBL (Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif) "EUFAR" and the establishment of an "open access" that will regulate the exchange of resources and access to infrastructures. This model is currently in a phase of design and discussion among the participants in the consortium, and once agreed and approved, it is expected to attract new funding of the State authorities and the European Commission.

The ICTS-PAI capabilities are among the most requested by European users, like those of the Earth observation community, resulting in the execution of many flight campaigns across Europe: GREASEMH, CALABRIA T-Mapp-FP7, Edocros, Hymoweb, Biohype, HyperForest, CalValHyp, UrbSense, DehesHyre, etc.

On the other hand, among the flight campaigns whose purpose is the study of the atmosphere and its phenomena, stand out: EURICE, TROMPETA, VALIDAR, EXTICE, VERDRILLT, MISPALIDAR, VOAS, TECOAGUA, CLIMARENO, etc.; whose execution has been funded by the European R&D programmes in some cases or by national R&D programmes in other cases.

In addition, ESA (European Space Agency) has been one of the primary users of the ICTS-PAI since 2004, collaborating to carry out flight campaigns of remote sensing as support of future Earth observation missions from space: SPARC, CEFLES 2, AgriSAR, SEN2FLEX, DESIREX, THERMOPOLIS, SEN3EXP, etc.