University of Helsinki students take part in an international meteorological field campaign

The North Atlantic Waveguide, Dry Intrusion, and Downstream Impact Campaign (NAWDIC, ) took place between 12th of January and 20th of February 2026. During the campaign detailed observations from aircraft and ground-based instrumentation spanning the North Atlantic and Europe were gathered. The aim was to improve understanding of dynamical and physical processes that lead to severe wind gusts, heavy precipitation, and cold air outbreaks in the North Atlantic and European region and to improve the representation of these processes in operational weather forecast models.  

As part of NAWDIC, an initiative called EUROP (European University RadiOsonde Partnership) was organised. EUROP consisted of a university partnership, of which the University of Helsinki was one of eight partners. The aim of EUROP was to obtain additional radiosonde observations from several European locations. Radiosondes – weather balloons – make measurements of the temperature, moisture, wind speed and direction through depth of the atmosphere. A weather balloon can reach up to 30 km above the Earth’s surface and constantly transmits its data back to the ground station. These observations are then transmitted directly to weather forecast centres where they are used to enhance the quality of weather forecasts. EUROP provided an exciting educational opportunity for students; as well as learning how to release weather balloons, the students also listened to the daily campaign briefings where the observations strategies were discussed and planned by experienced scientists.  

Doctoral Researcher, Johannes Mikkola, coordinated the campaign from the University of Helsinki side with assistance from INAR’s laboratory engineer Pekka Rantala and Dynamic Meteorology group members, Joona Cornér, Sara Tahvonen and Aarne Heikkilä. During the 6-week campaign, 15 bachelor's students, 5 master’s students and 3 Doctoral researchers from the University of Helsinki launched 25 weather balloons from the roof of Physicum when requested by the NAWDIC mission scientists. Overall, despite some data challenges to start with and the cold winter conditions, the campaign went very smoothly, and the students enjoyed the experience. 

Photo Credit: Tuomas Aumala