Research aircraft in polar science
Since 1983, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) has operated two ski-equipped polar aircraft for the German scientific community. Presently POLAR 2 (Dornier DO 228-101) and soon POLAR 5 (Basler BT-67) are available with special equipment mounted either inside the aircraft or on the wings for investigations of the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the cryosphere, and their interactions in the Arctic and Antarctica. Nowadays, aircraft are also indispensable to the logistics between the remote research stations in Antarctica. The operation of the two aircraft is supported by external partners.