The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is to lease a Dornier 228 to replace the Piper Navajo Chieftain which, the company says, "has given valiant service in earth observation for the past 16 years".

The Do228 will be delivered to NERC in October 2000 and following trials, will be operational in January 2001.

A spokesman commented: "Because the new aeroplane can fly further and carry more equipment, it will extend the environmental research programmes supported by NERC beyond the usual land and freshwater studies."

Access to the aircraft is the result of an agreement - finalised at the end of July - between NERC and the German Aerospace Research Centre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR). It covers scientific co-operation between NERC and DLR, and includes the three-year lease of the Do228 to NERC on a non-commercial basis.

"We will now be able to produce digital images of shelf seas to help monitor, for example, marine algal blooms. An entirely new range of observations will be possible in earth and atmospheric sciences; we can now study the Earth's gravity and its magnetic field and monitor pollution from ground level up to the stratosphere," said the spokesman.

He added: "NERC looks forward to an increase in collaborations with European colleagues in using this exciting new facility for environ-mental research and monitoring."