The campaign COPS was an international field observing campaign which took place in the upper Rhine valley, on the Black Forest and Vosges, during the summer of 2007.
During this campaign, some reconnaissance flights (called "upstream" flights) were done by the DLR  ’s Falcon aircraft, following targeting guidance given by sensitive areas. This guidance was computed in advance by a few NWP   centers, on request from DLR. Météo France and the CNRM   participated in the computational effort of sensitive areas with the technique of EKF and the sensitivity of the forecasts to initial conditions. These calculations were carried out in real time during the month of July 2007.

References :

Wulfmeyer et al., 2008. The Convective and Orographicaly Induced Precipitation Study. Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, 89, 1477—1486
DOI:10.1175/2008BAMS2367.1