Fennec (climate program)

The Saharan Heat Low is a key component of the West African Monsoon and is the location of the largest mineral aerosol loadings on the planet in the northern summer.

The ideas for Fennec, which is a British, French and German initiative, grew out of the African Multidisciplinary Monsoon Analysis (AMMA).

The instrumentation included Lidar, sodar, 4-8 radiosondes daily, a flux tower and aerosol sampling equipment (AERONET cimel Sun photometer, nephelometer and filters).

Similar equipment (sodar, flux tower, cimel photometer) ran at Zouerat in Mauritania in June 2011.

Over 200 hours of science flights, many at low level (150 feet above the surface) were conducted as part of the Fennec campaign.

Instrumented FAAM BAe-146 over Northern Mauritania, April 2011 on the Fennec Campaign