Access to Izana Subtropical Access Facility (ISAF) in the first half of 2017 as part of ACTRIS-2 activities

ACTRIS-2 project offers free of charge access to 18 observational facilities. One of them is Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC)(AEMET) under the acronym of ISAF (Izaña Subtropical Access Facility). ISAF is the only existing infrastructure for the observation of the atmosphere located in the free troposphere of the subtropical North Atlantic, achieving the monitoring and research related to atmospheric constituents that play key roles from local to global scale. More information about the procedure to get access to the ACTRIS-2 observational facilities can be found here.

During the first half of 2017 four access to ISAF have been approved: two training courses and two expert visits.

Mr Lahouari Zeudmi (Office National de la Météorologie-Tamanrasset station, Algeria), and Mr. Ilyes Zarrouk (Institut National de la Météorologie de Tunisie -Tunis_Carthage station, Tunisia) attended to a 20-hour training course on Cimel sun-photometer operation given by Dr. Carmen Guirado-Fuentes and Mr. Ramón Ramos, under the supervision of Dr. Emilio Cuevas. The courses were held in January and April, respectively.

Mr. Lahouari Zeudmi (up) and Mr. Ilyes Zarrouk (down) during their training courses at the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center facilities in Izaña Mountain and Santa Cruz de Tenerife

In February, Mr. Philippe Demoulin (Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy) was testing and calibrating the VISION instrument, a miniature visible and near-infrared imaging spectrometer that will fly onboard PICASSO (Pico-Satellite for Atmospheric and Space Science Observations), a CubeSat spacecraft to be launched during 2017. During the access, more than 6000 solar images were recorded to be later analysed.

Mr. Philippe Demoulin during his stay at the Izaña Observatory (up) on a sunny day as well as on a foggy day while waiting to see the sun again. VISION instrument in operation (down left) and one of the VISION instrument images taken at Izaña (down right). This last image is one of the last monochromatic (@ 525 nm) images recorded during sunset on 13 February, with the sun setting just behind the Teide’s upper cable car station

In June, Dr. Mauro Mazzola (National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, CNR-ISAC) participated in the “Lunar Photometry Campaign and Workshop at Izaña 2017” to test the Lunar version of the Precision Filter Radiometer (PFR), produced by PMOD-WRC (Physikalisch-Metorologisches Observatorium Davos – World Radiation Center). The PFR Lunar prototype, developed in collaboration between PMOD-WRC and CNR-ISAC, was calibrated and compared with other instruments suitable for retrieving aerosol optical depth using the light reflected by the Moon, including the reference instrument CE318T photometer, manufactured by Cimel Electronique.

Dr. Mauro Mazzola (centre of the image) during his stay at the Izaña Observatory. The picture was taken during the discussion sessions of the Lunar Photometry Workshop