The University of Granada participates in this research infrastructure through the Singular Laboratory Global Atmosphere Observatory of Andalusia (AGORA) belonging to the Interuniversity Institute for Research on the Earth System in Andalusia (IISTA).
The ACTRIS facility is the largest distributed atmospheric research infrastructure in the world.
Scientists from the University of Granada (UGR) participate in ACTRIS, a scientific facility recently established by the European Commission as the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) to provide state-of-the-art data and services in atmospheric research.
The European Commission has taken the long-awaited decision to establish the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium, or ERIC. Seventeen countries pool resources to open access to a wide range of technologies, services and resources in the field of atmospheric science. The ERIC decision and statutes have now been published in the Official Journal of the EU.
The creation of ACTRIS ERIC concretizes a long-term effort by several European countries to create a sustainable infrastructure to support atmospheric and climate research. With ACTRIS, the doors are open for researchers, industry and countries to access key information on the state of the atmosphere, share the best research platforms in Europe and support policy making with all the necessary scientific knowledge.
The UGR participates in this research infrastructure through the Singular Laboratory Global Atmosphere Observatory of Andalusia (AGORA) (https://atmosphere.ugr.es/informacion/presentacion/agora) belonging to the Interuniversity Research Institute of the Earth System in Andalusia (IISTA) (http://www.iista.es/) and operated by the research group in Physics of the Atmosphere (GFAT) (https://atmosphere.ugr.es/informacion/presentacion).
AGORA provides ACTRIS with an atmospheric aerosol remote sensing station and a cloud remote sensing station with vertical resolution, in addition to an in-situ atmospheric aerosol station, located on the roof of the IISTA building.
The atmospheric aerosol remote sensing station consists of a multi-wavelength lidar (laser radar), a sun/moon photometer and various auxiliary equipment. The cloud remote sensing station consists of a polarizing cloud radar, a wind Doppler lidar, a microwave radiometer and several auxiliary equipment.
The in-situ atmospheric aerosol station includes several pieces of equipment that measure the physical and chemical properties of atmospheric aerosol by sampling the air above the station.
The result of the combination of these three stations is the most complete ACTRIS station in Spain, which allows aerosol-cloud interaction studies taking advantage of the synergies between them.
Spanish organizations participating in ACTRIS ERIC
Spain through the Ministry of Science and Innovation, which pays the Spanish membership fees to ACTRIS ERIC, participates in ACTRIS with eleven research organizations, which are grouped in a Joint Research Unit, consisting of the Energy, Environmental and Technological Research Center (CIEMAT), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the University of Granada, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), the Fundación de la Comunitat Valenciana Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo (CEAM), the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), the University of Valladolid, the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, the Universitat de València and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Other organizations are collaborating and may join in the future.
The resources that Spain puts into ACTRIS ERIC are the result of investments by public administrations that, through national and regional programs, have financed research and infrastructure projects over many years. These resources will bear further fruit through the synergies created within ACTRIS ERIC. It is to be expected that, if the performance of the participating organizations is satisfactory, resources in the form of equipment and researchers, especially young researchers, will continue to arrive.
ACTRIS National Facilities are distributed throughout the 17 ACTRIS ERIC countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Greece and the United Kingdom have expressed interest in joining at a later stage.
ACTRIS ERIC Structure
ACTRIS is structured into National Facilities, consisting of observation platforms and exploratory platforms, and Central Facilities, which are essential for the provision of high quality harmonized data, obtained both within Europe and at selected global sites, providing users with access to state-of-the-art, well-characterized and versatile facilities.
Currently, Spain contributes to the ACTRIS National Facilities with observation platforms distributed in the peninsula and the Canary Islands (three ground-based aerosol remote sensing stations, one ground-based cloud remote sensing station, seven in situ aerosol measurement stations) and with an exploratory platform (atmospheric simulation chamber). It also participates in the Central Data Centre and the Centre for Aerosol Remote Sensing Calibration (CARS). It is foreseeable that in the expected long life of ACTRIS ERIC, other organisations and facilities will contribute from Spain to the European infrastructure.