The SILEX campaign is the 1st campaign of the EUBURN-RISK project. It will run from July 15 to August 3, 2025. It involves SAFIRE’s ATR research aircraft equipped with several sensors and instruments to sample and document particle emissions during forest and vegetation fires in southern France. The aim is to prepare for the large-scale EUBURN campaign in 2027 under real-life conditions, both operationally and scientifically. In particular, this involves testing and optimizing airborne operations in real conditions, optimizing the experimental set-up by taking into account real-time satellite observations of fire products and get informations about fires and atmospheric plumes. The campaign will also provide the initial data needed to develop numerical tools and algorithms for inversion of satellite observations. It will also enable to characterize gas and aerosol emissions resulting from fires, the transformations undergone by these aerosols during transport, and to study the microphysical, chemical, hygroscopic and optical properties of aerosols.
Operational Center
The operational website has been active since early June, analyzing conditions and ready to activate ATR flights from July 14. The operational team brings together weather forecasters, Météo-France forecasters specializing in fire risk working in connection with the fire-fighting resources of the French Sécurité Civile, ATC, SAFIRE and scientists involved in the campaign. All information are available on the operational website developed by AERIS (weather forecast, fire risk forecasts, models, satellite image, etc.) to decide aircraft GO/NOGO.
Flight Plans and Strategy
Main instrumentation on-Board and Parameters
| Thermodynamics (SAFIRE) | Temperature, Humididy , pressure, wind measured at high frequency |
| Microphysics (SAFIRE and CNRM) | UHSAS (60 nm to 1μm) FSSP300 (0.45-20 μm), Gerber probe (LWC) |
| Pyrgeometer and pyranometer (SAFIRE) | Upwelling and downwelling longwave (4.5 µm– 42 µm) and shortwave (200 nm – 3600 nm) |
| Chemical analysers (SAFIRE) | PICARRO (CO, CO2, H2O, CH4), Teledyne T200UP (NO, NO2, NOX) |
| Photometer Plasma2 (LOA) | AOD |
| Visible cameras (LOA) | OSMO (cloud detection) |
| FLIR Camera (LEMTA, UPC, ONERA) | Thermal imaging |
| Aerosols (CNRM) | MCCNC , SMPS, OPC, CPC, HTDMA, SP2, CAPS , NEPHELOMETER |
| Canister (LaMP, IMT) | VOC composition ( off-line analysis by PTRMS MOCCA) |
| Black Carbon (CNRM, Castaing Centre) | Sampling on grid (off-line analysis morphology by tomography) |
Platforms (Satellite/Models/Ground network)
| Platform | Instrument |
|---|---|
| MTG | FCI (Fire, Smoke, AOD) |
| MSG | SEVIRI (Fire detection and Active fire monitoring) |
| METOP | IASI |
| Sentinel-5P | TROPOMI |
| EARTHCARE | ATLID |
| AquaTerra | |
| MOCAGE (Météo-France) | Gas and aerosols concentration Forecast up to 96h |
| CAMS (Copernicus) | Fire Activity, reactive and aerosols concentration forecast up to 120h |
| AROME (Météo-France) | Weather Forecast |
| MesoNH (Météo-France, LAERO) | Weather Forecast |
| MesoNH Forefire (University of Corse) | Plume transport on hectometric scale |
| Fire Weather Index (Météo-France) | FWI/IFM (Fire Weather Index/Indice de Feux Météo) |
| Ground Lidar and Ceilometer network (Météo-France, e-profile) | Aerosol profile |
| Photometer network (AERONET/ACTRIS) | AOD |