These sites are operated in collaboration with the Direcció General de Qualitat Ambiental - DGQA – from the Secretaría de Medi Ambient i Sostenibilitat, from Departament de Territory i Sostenibilitat from the Generalitat de Catlunya. These sites are part of the network Xarxa de vigilancia y previsió de la contaminació atmosférica.

The design of the network aims to provide a picture of atmospheric aerosols at different environments that can be considered as representative of northeast Spain, in the western Mediterranean Basin. Comparison between measurements obtained at these environments permits us to investigate sources and processes of atmospheric aerosols, and provides insight in order to define adequate strategies for air quality and climate policies.

The network of sites is well-equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation complying with ACTRIS requirements for aerosol in –situ (MSA, MSY and BCN) and remote sensing (BCN) observational facilities, and with measurement tools to estimate the aerosol radiative effects. Moreover, all sites are also equipped with instruments for trace gases, including VOCs in BCN. Ceilometers are also operated at MSA and MSY; an EARLINET high-power multi-wavelength aerosol lidar, an AERONET sun/sky/lunar photometer, a MPLNET micro-pulse lidar and several SolRad-Net radiometers are operated at BCN.

A comprehensive chemical speciation of PM fractions is regularly carried out at the three sites since 2002, providing a unique dataset for source apportionment, trends analysis and air quality research (see TABLE).

Table: Chemical components determined at the PM 24h filters collected at each site.

Access to the network allows to investigate three different environments, connecting Air Quality, Health and Climate Research. It is the only infrastructure as such in the Western Mediterranean Basin, a unique region for atmospheric research given the high insolation, the specific meteorology, the elevated emissions of pollutants, and the frequent impact of dust outbreaks.

Moreover, collaboration of host organizations with Air Quality Monitoring Networks in Barcelona facilitates the access to AQ roadside monitoring sites for investigating exhaust and non-exhaust emissions.

Barcelona cluster participates in Pilots 2 and 4 in RI URBANS project. Pilot2 is devoted to develop and test NRT data provision of nanoparticles and their size distributions (Barcelona, Birmingham, Helsinki). Pilot 4 will evaluate, the health effects of novel AQ metrics and their source contributions, including PM components (mass concentrations) and nanoparticles (number concentrations), using epidemiology and oxidative potential tools. Access to the Barcelona cluster provides a good opportunity to contribute to RI-Urbans objectives.