The month-long journey is to get airborne in March and will see Lenarčič fly over 42,000 kilometres with 13 stops. The longest single flight will take him some 19 hours to cover over 4,200 kilometres.

The GreenLight WorldFlight mission aims to collect data on the second most important agent of climate change. According to the team, scientists lack significant information on the concentration of black carbon in the air as most of the measurements had been made from the surface of the planet so far.

While NASA is currently conducting research over the Pacific Ocean that costs millions of dollars, the team around the GreenLight WorldFlight plans to collect data over a wider area for as little as some tens of thousands of euros. Almost two thirds of the costs will be covered by the team itself.

Head of the scientific part of the team Griša Močnik noted that people need to start adapting to climate change, as air pollution is already responsible for some seven million deaths each year.

Two years ago Lenarčič flew over the North Pole in an ultralight aircraft made by Slovenian company Pipistrel, while in 2012 he finished a solo flight around the globe.