Finalist: Japan Airlines
Location Tokyo, Japan
Achievement Support for a scientific project to monitor greenhouse gases in the upper Earth's atmosphere. For the past five years, Japan Airlines (JAL) has been actively supporting a scientific study to measure the extent of greenhouse gases in the Earth's upper atmosphere.
The project is being carried out by the JAL Foundation, a non-profit organisation established by the airline in 1989, in conjunction with Japan's Meteorological Agency and Transport Ministry.
It involves collecting air samples from the upper troposphere, some 9-13km high, using sampling equipment designed by JAL to be fitted to one of its Boeing 747 fleet. Samples are taken automatically from the airliner's air-conditioning unit at regular intervals. The exact altitude and position can later be cross-checked with the aircraft's recorded flight data.
First results from the continuing project were published in April and are providing an important contribution to the study of greenhouse gases now being conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Source: Flight International
