HALO (High Altitude and Long range research aircraft) is a unique research aircraft which is aimed at long distances (more than 8000 km), high altitudes (up to 15.5 km) and large payloads (up to 3 metric tons). HALO is based on a Gulfstream G550. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is the owner and operator of HALO. HALO is based at the DLR site Oberpfaffenhofen. Various missions aiming earth system research have been completed successfully.

The university part of HALO is operated through the “Schwerpunktprogramm” (special priority programme) no. 1294 of the German Research Foundation (DFG), which is coordinated by Prof. Manfred Wendisch (University Leipzig) and Prof. Joachim Curtius (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main).

Currently, we prepare the HALO mission CAFE-Brazil (2022/23, Brazil). The last successful mission were CAFE-EU/BLUESKY (2020, Europe), SouthTRAC (2019, Argentina), and WISE (2017, Ireland). The HALO campaigns WISE and SOUTHTRAC are funded through the scientific priority programme 1294 of the German science foundation DFG.

You can find more information on the HALO website, and at DLR. Find out more about the DFG Special Priority Program here.