BIANKA : A Balloon Field Campaign to Study Climate Change Uncertainties

Climate change affects our everyday lives and despite a lot of research, many climate uncertainties exist. This work aims to help address some of these uncertainties via the BIANKA (BImodal ANdes KAroo) campaign; a first of its kind for South Africa. The campaign collected observations in the data sparse southern hemisphere and was a tri-lateral campaign between Chile, Germany and South Africa. The BIANKA campaign aimed at observing atmospheric composition, aerosols and cirrus clouds over South Africa as well as South America, with a special focus on the upper troposphere and stratosphere. This work summarises the aims and outlines the observations of the campaign. Moreover, initial results are showcased alongside plans for future work.