Projects

Ongoing projects

Project title: KADI (Knowledge and climate services from an African observation and Data research Infrastructure)

Description: The general porpuse of this interdisciplinary project between Africa and Europe is to develop a blueprint for a pan-African climate research infrastructure, with climate services as its guiding principle. This involves devising strategies to advance the most advanced scientific knowledge and services in Africa, crucial for bolstering collective efforts against climate change, as delineated in the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 13: ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.’ In this context, it is neccesary to enhance the understanding of climate change in Africa and develop tools to mitigate its adverse effects. To achieve this, a consortium comprising partners from both continents will pool diverse experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. The overarching aim is to formulate a comprehensive framework supporting the vital societal role of research, termed here as ‘climate services,’ by collaboratively designing research capacities tailored to societal needs and expectations. This endeavor seeks to pave the way for the effective implementation of these services.

Finantial entity: European Union
Funding budget: (Total Consortium = 1.771.875,00€; AEMET as Beneficiary = 60.000,00€)
Contract number: grant agreement No 101058525
Length: 2022-2025
Number of involved institutions: 16
Principal investigator: Werner Kutsch (Integrated Carbon Observation System European Research Infrastruct, ICOS)

 

Project title: HARMONIA (International network for harmonization of atmospheric aerosol retrievals from ground-based photometers)

Description: The objective of this Action Cost is to improve and homogenize aerosol retrievals by establishing a network of institutions, instrument developers, scientific and commercial end users. The common aerosol columnar properties’ retrieval techniques consist of direct measurement of a bright source of radiation (sun, star, moon, sky) with multi-wavelength photometers. Several global photometric aerosol networks exist, with structural, algorithm and hardware-based differences in their related aerosol products and global standardization is needed. The work plan is structured into 5 Working Groups and it includes short-term scientific missions and workshops.
Finantial entity: European Union
Action Chair: Dr. Kazadzis Stelios (Physical Meteorological Observatory in Davos, PMOD)
Contract number: Cost Action CA21119
Length: 25 October 2022-24 October 2026

 

Project title: Spanish Network of Institutions Participating in ACTRIS

Description: The proposed network aims at consolidating, strengthening and promoting the role of the ACTRIS-Spain community in the framework of the ACTRIS ERIC consortium, to be legally established soon through its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union and to which Spain has officially expressed its commitment.
Financial entity: Redes de Investigación, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain)
Funding budget: 147.840 euros
Contract number: grant agreement No 871115
Length: 2023-2025
Number of involved institutions: 11 Spanish Institutions
Principal investigator: Dr. Lucas Alados Arboledas (Granada University)

 

Project title: Towards the Next Generation of Sensors for Surveying the Atmospheric Carbon Cycle (CarbonSurvey)

Description: The main expected contribution of this project is to address the current weaknesses of greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring networks through the development of a new generation instruments enabling unprecedented CO2 monitoring capabilities, the biggest GHG contributor to human-caused global warming. These new sensors will provide an accurate measurement of the gaseous concentration, not only at ground level but also at the different layers of the atmosphere, for a full characterization of the CO2 distribution. Moreover, the sensing systems will be specifically designed for a straightforward in situ deployment in different areas of interest, providing full coverage of the most important blind spots existing today. Thus, new generation of sensors could establish the necessary basis to guide decision-making policies in the Green transition process ahead. The necessary technical contributions required to reach the main goal of the project involve two complementary developments: (i) a Laser Heterodyne Radiometer capable of obtaining the vertical profile of CO2 and the isotopic ratio and (ii) a Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy solution for in situ, surface, GHG measurements. The feasibility of the proposed methodology is supported by the extensive experience of the research team behind the proposal, composed of a large group of researchers from the Sensors and Instrumentation Techniques Group from the University Carlos III of Madrid and by members of the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center from the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET).

Finantial entity: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain)

Finding budget: 195.500,00 €

Contract number: TED2021-131695B-I00

Length: 1/12/2022-30/11/2024

Number of involved institutions: 2

Principal investigator: Marta Ruiz Llata and Pedro Martín Mateos (University Carlos III of Madrid)

 

Project title: ATMO-ACCESS – Sustainable Access to Atmospheric Research Facilities

Description: The ambition of ATMO-ACCESS is to address the needs for developing sustainable solutions based on the principles of open access and to develop guidelines and recommendations for governance, management and funding for efficient and effective access provision suited to distribute atmospheric RIs. This project investigates the most suitable mechanisms that could lead to the sustainable provision of access to atmospheric research infrastructures.

The main objectives of ATMO-ACCESS are:

– to provide coordinated open physical, remote and virtual access to state-of-the-art facilities and services in atmospheric RIs and further enhance their range of products, capabilities and accessibility for a wide range of users, including the private sector
– to engage facilities and their national stakeholders and direct them towards improved harmonisation of access procedures across the different member states, while also exploring modalities by which the use of atmospheric RIs can be further enhanced
– to explore and test new modalities of access that build on the complementarity and synergies among atmospheric RIs and respond to the evolving needs of users in relation to training, research and technology development, innovation and data services
– to identify the most suitable conditions for establishing sustainable access procedures across the EU for distributed atmospheric RIs, involving national and international stakeholders.
AEMET_IARC contribute to WP8: “Sustainable and strategic framework for access to distributed atmospheric Research Infrastructures”, offering access throughout the project to our facilities at IZO (for more information, please visit the project webpage).
Financial entity: European Commission (EU H2020-INFRAIA-2018-2020 Integrating and opening research infrastructures of European interest)
Funding budget: (Total Consortium = 14.999.949,75€; AEMET as Beneficiary = 239.600,00€ (including 45.000,00€ of University of Valladolid as Third-Party))
Contract number: grant agreement No 101008004
Length: 2021-2025
Number of involved institutions: 38 Institutions
Principal investigator: Dr. Natalia Prats, Dr. África Barreto (coordinator: Dr. Paolo Laj (CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS (CNRS))
Project webpage: https://www.atmo-access.eu/

 

Project title: ACTRIS-IMP – Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace Gases Research Infraestructure, Implementation Phase

Description: ACTRIS Implementation project (ACTRIS IMP) builds on the achievements of the successful ACTRIS PPP and on the scientific and technical deliveries of the ACTRIS-2 and EUROCHAMP-2020 projects. The ACTRIS IMP project objectives are based on the overall ACTRIS implementation phase objectives. Moreover, the ACTRIS IMP project will elevate ACTRIS to a new level of maturity and will set the required coordinated structures for coherent implementation actions, to be performed at both the national and European level.
The overarching objective of ACTRIS IMP is to coordinate and accomplish the actions required for implementing a globally-recognised long-term sustainable research infrastructure with operational services by 2025.
ACTRIS IMP will build on three strategic pillars: 1) securing the long-term sustainability of ACTRIS; 2) ensuring the coordinated implementation of ACTRIS functionalities; and 3) positioning ACTRIS in the regional, European and international science and innovation landscape. ACTRIS IMP will enable ACTRIS to respond to user-community needs and requirements for fully operational services supporting Earth system science, for atmospheric and climate research in particular. Moreover, ACTRIS IMP will enhance ACTRIS relevance, innovation potential, and societal impacts.
ACTRIS IMP will form the coordinated European framework having the necessary with the needed tools towards for achieving these objectives duringin the four-year duration of the project, also implementing effective risk management and contingency plans to fully embrace all requirements for its the successful implementation of ACTRIS.

Financial entity: European Commission (EU Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action)
Funding budget: (Total Consortium = 4.999.997,50 €. AEMET as Third-Party of University of Valladolid)
Contract number: grant agreement No 871115
Length: 2021-2024
Number of involved institutions: 35 Institutions (AEMET as Third-Party of UVa) https://www.actris.eu/Projects/ACTRISIMP(2020-2023)/Partners.aspx
Principal investigator: Dr. África Barreto  (coordinator: Dr. Sanna Sorvari (FMI, Finnish Meteorological Institute)

 

Project title: Preparation and Operations of the Mission Performance Centre (MPC) for the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor Satellite”-Phase3 : Subcontract (BREWEB-ESA) Brewer Error Budget Eubrewnet

Description: The aim of the sub- project is to implement the total ozone error budget developed during the ATMOZ project on the Eubrewnet total ozone product for satellite validation. The project is

1. Total ozone uncertainty model on Brewer Algorithm due instrumental parameters.
2. Total ozone uncertainty model on Brewer Algorithm due to atmospheric parameters
3. Adaptation of the Eubrewnet outputs to be included on EVDC
4. Error information implementation on total ozone eubrewnet product

Financial entity: ESA – European Space Agency
Funding budget: 99.631,60 € (Total Consortium = 1.512.921 €)
Contract number: ESRIN/AO/1-8314/15/I-LG
Length: 2020 – 2022 (2 years)
Number of involved institutions: 11
Principal investigator: Alberto Redondas (coordinator: Pepijn Veefkind , KMI)

 

Project title: Medida de Gases de Efecto Invernadero en Ambientes Urbanos (MEGEI)

Description: Urban areas currently contribute over 50% of the global emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). This percentage is growing since worldwide population is increasingly concentrating in the urban areas, going from over 50% nowadays to 70% by 2050. Consequently, monitoring urban GHGs emissions at small temporal and spatial scales is crucial to design effective GHGs control and mitigation policies. In this context, the project MEGEI (Monitoring of the Greenhouse Gases Concentrations in urban environments) aims to comprehensively characterize the urban emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) of different urban areas in Spain by using ground-based Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometry.

Financial entity:  AEMET
Funding budget: –
Contract number:  –
Length: since 2018
Number of involved institutions: AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center), Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK) from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), University of Heidelberg, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Universidad de Valladolid, Barcelona Super Computing Center (BSC).
Principal investigator: Dra Omaira García (AEMET)

 

 

Project title: Sand and Dust Strom Early Warning System in the Magreb Region (SDS-Africa)

Description: The main goal of this complementary project to the SDS WS for Europe, Africa and Middle East is to establish a ground-based network of sun photometers in selected sites of Northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Egypt) for watching dust storms in near real time. This network over the Sahara will be also used for near real time satellite-based sensor validation, dust modelling verification and for a characterization of the Saharan Air Layer. This project constitutes a very valuable contribution to the Aerosol WMO Global Atmospheric Watch Program and to the WMO Sand and Dust Strom Warning Advisory and Assessment System Regional Center for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe. The three new stations are being incorporated into the AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network; http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov), PHOTONS (http://www-loa.univ-lille1.fr/photons/) and RIMA (Red Ibérica de Medida Fotométrica de Aerosoles) networks. These new stations will complement the existing stations in Northern Africa (Tamanrasset-Algeria and Canary Islands) managed by AEMET.
Tamanrasset station (Algeria)
El Cairo Station (Egypt)
Financial entity: AECID (Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo)
Funding budget: 184,000 €
Contract number: S/N
Length: since 01/09/2007
Number of involved institutions: AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center), the World Meteorological Organization (Atmospheric Research and Environment Program), the Egyptian
Meteorological Authority (EMA; Egypt), the Office National de la Météorologie (ONM; Algeria), the Direction de la Météorologie Nationale (DMN; Morocco), and the Institut National de la Meteorologie (INM; Tunisia)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Emilio Cuevas
 
 

Project title: Global Atmospheric Watch in the Magreb-Sahara Region (GAW-Sahara)

Description: The main goal of the GAW-Sahara project is to obtain accurate and quality assured total column ozone and spectral UV over the Sahara within the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) programme. The projects provides funds to set up a double Brewer spectrophotometer at the Tamanrasset Meteorological Regional Center and a NILU multifilter radiometer at the high-altitude Assekrem GAW station. As an operational Dobson spectrophotometer is at Tamanrasset, this station would be one of the few sites in the world where a permanent and long-term intercomparison between the Dobson, the Brewer and the present and future satellite-based sensors could be performed on a routine basis. This initiative is strongly recommended by the WMO Ozone Scientific Advisory Group and will be a unique contribution to the total ozone global network Quality Assurance. On the other hand the installation of a NILU multifilter radiometer at Assekrem station will allow obtaining UV radiation, Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR) and also deriving total column ozone at a mountain station in the middle of the Sahara. The Brewer at Tamanrasset and the NILU at Assekrem will also fill a big gap existing nowadays of spectral UV and Umkehr observations in this region. Routine validation of new satellite-based sensors will be one of the main goals of these new measurement programs. This project will also finance a short mission of the Brewer spectrophotometers from Morocco in order to participate in the ozone and UV intercomparisons for Brewer spectrophotometers organized by the Regional Brewer Calibration Center for RA-VIEurope (RBCC-E).
Financial entity: AECID (Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo)
Funding budget: 340,000 €
Contract number: S/N
Length: since 01/09/2007
Number of involved institutions: AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center), the World Meteorological Organization (Atmospheric Research and Environment Program), and the Office National de la Météorologie (ONM; Algeria).
Principal Investigator: Alberto Redondas

 


Completed projects

 

Project title: EMPIR-MAPP – Metrology for Aerosol Optical Properties

Description: The overall aim of this project is to enable the SI-traceable measurement of column-integrated aerosol optical properties retrieved from the passive remote sensing of the atmosphere using solar and lunar radiation measurements. We will calibrate radiometers of the three largest aerosol monitoring networks at NMI laboratories and develop portable devices for the in-field calibration of network radiometers in order to validate and improve the current aerosol optical property retrievals using state-of-the-art inversion models. The goal is to standardise aerosol optical properties retrieval by shortening the calibration chain, reduce calibration downtime of network radiometers and establish their consistent dissemination including their uncertainty.

Financial entity: EURAMET-EMPIR European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research
Funding budget: 101.205,00 € (Total Consortium = 2.197.116,25 €)
Contract number: 19ENV04 MAPP
Length: 2020 – 2023 (3 years)
Number of involved institutions: SFI Davos, Aalto, CMI, NPL, PTB, VSL, AEMET, CNR, CNRS, GRASP SAS, UoR, UV, UVa
Principal investigator: Dr. Julian Grobner (SFI Davos), ( Dr. Emilio Cuevas at AEMET), África Barreto (AEMET)

 

Project title: IASI for surveyiNg MethanE and NitrouS oxidE in the troposphere (INMENSE)

Description: Multiple evidences in our environment indicate climate change is happening. Future of the Earth-atmosphere system will depend, to a large extent, on our capability of understanding all the processes driving climate change, and on taking the needed decisions on climate change mitigation strategies. One of the major limitation for addressing these challenges is the lack of accurate observations of the atmospheric composition on all spatial and temporal scales. Of outstanding importance are the monitoring and the investigation of greenhouse gases (GHGs), as main drivers of the Earth’s climate change.

In this context, the INMENSE project aims to improve our current understanding of the atmospheric budgets of two of the most important well-mixed greenhouse gases, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Knowledge of the atmospheric distributions of CH4 and N2O concentrations, from the local to global scales, as well as their variability in time is essential for a better understanding of their sinks and sources, and for predicting their evolution in the atmosphere. In order to achieve this core objetive, the INMENSE project connects the three main pillars of the current observational strategies for investigating the atmospheric composition: high-quality and high-frequency ground-based observations, global coverage from satellite platforms, and chemistry transport modelling.

INMENSE will generate a new global observational data set of middle/upper tropospheric concentrations of CH4 and N2O with high and well-documented quality. For this purpose, it will further develop and evaluate combined CH4 and N2O retrievals that use the thermal emission spectra measured by the satellite sensor IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer), aboard the meteorological satellites Metop. As a key component of the EUMETSAT Earth observation programme, the current IASI mission together with the new generation of IASI-NG (New Generation) sensors offer a unique opportunity for investigating and generating continuous and homogeneous long-term time series of CH4 and N2O observations at global scale for more than three decades (2006-2040). The IASI observations will be integrated with model estimates of the chemistry transport MOCAGE. Furthermore, it will be evaluated if it is possible to reduce the CH4 model errors that are correlated to the N2O model errors. By the integrated observation/modelling approach INMENSE will investigate the kind of CH4 and N2O sink/source signals that can be captured by high quality IASI observations.

In summary, this project will develop and validate different IASI CH4 and N2O products and reveal to what extent IASI can monitor the geographical distribution of CH4 and N2O surface emissions.

Financial entity: Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad
Funding budget: 98.000,00 €
Contract number: CGL2016-80688-P
Length: 29/12/2016-30/06/2020
Number of involved institutions: AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center) and Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK) from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Principal investigator: Dra. Omaira García (AEMET)

 

Project title: MOisture Transport pathways and Isotopologues in water Vapour (MOTIV)

Description: Remote sensing observations of water vapour isotopologue composition can give novel opportunities for understanding the different water cycle processes and their link to the climate. However, their observation, when using remote sensing techniques, is challenging. The project MUSICA addressed this task by consistently developing ground and space-based remote sensing retrievals and integrating them with well-calibrated in-situ measurements. In the context of MUSICA, it had extensively shown that NDACC/FTIR and MetOp/IASI retrievals of {H2O, δD}-pairs are in principle feasible and consistent with well-calibrated in-situ observations, and a very useful tool to investigate the lower/middle tropospheric moisture pathways.

The great potential of the different MUSICA products makes them a very useful tool in water vapour cycle research. This is the idea of the German project MOTIV, which combines the high-resolution MUSICA IASI isotopologue observations with high-resolution modelling, with the final objective of using the isotopologues as a diagnostic tool to investigate moisture pathways and evaluate the representation of moist processes in weather and climate models. The combination of simulations and MUSICA products allow statistically robust investigations, which give insight into the diurnal cycle, small-scale variations and effects of large-scale circulations of moisture in the atmosphere. Within MOTIV, the space-based isotopologue observations are complemented with the insitu continuous measurements recorded at IZO and PTO since 2012.

Financial entity: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Funding budget: –
Contract number: SCHN 1126/2-1
Length: 2017-2020
Number of involved institutions: Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK) from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and ETH Zürich.
Principal investigator: Dr. Matthias Schneider (KIT)

 

Project title: Core requirements to support forecast of meningitis (MACC Project)

Description: Monitoring Atmospheric Composition & Climate (MACC) is the current pre-operational atmospheric service of the European GMES programme. MACC is a Collaborative Project (2009-2011) funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme.

It is coordinated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and operated by a 45-member consortium. MACC provides data records on atmospheric composition for recent years, data for monitoring present conditions and forecasts of the distribution of key constituents for a few days ahead. MACC combines state-of-the-art atmospheric modelling with Earth observation data to provide information services covering European Air Quality, Global Atmospheric Composition, Climate, and UV and Solar Energy. O-INTERFACE 3 (O-INT_3) is a service chain analysis in support to health community. It is one of the components of the OUTREACH cluster, which aims to maximize the benefit that MACC brings to the users of the atmospheric services offered by GMES. The Working Package O-INT_3.1 “Core requirements to support forecast of meningitis”, leaded by the Meteorological State Agency of Spain (AEMET), in joint cooperation with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) within the Sand and Dust Storm (SDS) Warning Advisory and Assessment System (WAS) Regional Center for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe, has as a first goal the implementation of an operational service for dust forecast – initially using the model BSC-DREAM8b – and near real time monitoring for the Sahel region inside MACC. Large dust plumes from the southern Sahara and the Bodele depression are thought be linked to meningitis outbreaks in the Sahel region (the “Meningitis Belt”). This belt is an endemic area for meningococcal meningitis (MCM). Previous studies have analyzed the relationship between meningitis and environmental parameters obtained by satellite-based sensors and ground meteorological stations. The combined information from ground and satellite based observations and meteorological/dust models will improve the studies conducted to investigate the link between meningitis and environmental factors over the Sahara and the Sahel regions.

http://www.gmes-atmosphere.eu/

http://www.gmes-atmosphere.eu/about/project_structure/outreach/o-int/

Financial entity: EC FPVII (ECMWF)
Funding budget: 50,000 €
Contract number: 218793
Length: from 01/06/2009 to 31/12/2011
Number of involved institutions: AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS; Unfunded contribution to MACC)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Emilio Cuevas
 
 

Project title: CEOS Intercalibration of ground based spectrometers and Lidars

Description: Ground-based instruments (Dobson and Brewer) as well as satellite ozone retrievals present four major know issues not fully understood: (1) seasonal differences between Dobson and Brewer, (2) straylight in single monocromators brewers, (3) algorithm differences and (4) ozone cross section effects. Dobson and Brewer comparisons show a seasonal pattern with largest differences in late autumn and winter (high solar zenith angle). This difference is partially explained by the different sensitivity of the Brewer and Dobson algorithms to the temperature of the ozone layer. During the SAUNA campaigns the single Brewers exhibited striking column dependences at high SZA. This behavior is due in part to instrumental stray-light and calibration issues of the single monochromator instruments. As opposed to satellites which rely on ozone profile and temperature climatologies in their inversions, ground-based instrumentations use a fixed effective ozone altitude and temperature in their algorithms. This difference in implementation leads to differences between ground-based and satellites and also between ground-based time-series themselves. A usefull fix for the satellite community would be to assess the implementation of latitude dependent climatology in the ground-based algorithms. Another issue on the satellite validation is the use of different ozone cross sections in the retrieval algorithms. This problem is outside the scope of the project, but the implementation of changes on the ground-based algorithms mentioned above requires a reevaluation of the calibration of the instrument. This means that the calibration history has to be carefully documented and raw data files must be stored for further reanalysis. The issues described above can readily be improved by performing calibration from a well characterized double monochromator instrument after operating the instruments side-by-side for periods of 2 weeks over a large range of solar zenith angles and varying ozone column amounts. A number of field campaigns will be conducted in the 2008-2012 time frame where Dobson and Brewer spectrophotometers will be intercompared and calibrated using absolute calibration after the Langley Method to establish standards, while the transfer of the resulting calibration level into the network is done by regular intercomparisons. Through participation of FMI to some of the intercalibration campaigns, the calibration level will be delivered to the key Nordic Brewers. As regards the participation of the Regional Brewer Calibration Center for Europe (RBCC-E), selected Brewer network instruments from Europe and North-Africa will be operated in parallel to the European reference instrument. Such campaigns are planned in Spain, Switzerland and Algeria/Egypt. The European standard Dobson will be operated at Izana along the European standard double Brewer.
www.iberonesia.net

Financial entity:ESA (through the Finnish Meteorological Institute)
Funding budget: 105,600 € (AEMET)
Contract number: sub-contract to ESA Contract n° 22202/09/I-EC
Length: from 01/01/2010 to 31/03/2012
Number of involved institutions: Regarding Brewer spectrophotometers community, AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center through the Regional Brewer calibration Center for Europe), and the Finnish meteorological institute-Arctic Research Centre (FMI-ARC).
Principal Investigator: Alberto Redondas

 

Project title: Study of isotopic composition of the precipitation and water vapor in the atmosphere over the Canary Islands for the characterization of local, regional and global processes involved in climate change over the subtropical Region (ECOMISAAC)

Description: The main goal of this project is the isotopic characterization of water from snow, rain and fog sampled at different altitudes of the Tenerife Island.
 
Financial entity: Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información (Gobierno de Canarias)
Funding budget: 25,953 €
Contract number: SolSubC200801000260
Length: from 22/06/2009 to 22/06/2012
Number of involved institutions: La Laguna University (ULL), and AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center).
Principal Investigator:Dr. Juan Carlos Guerra (University of La laguna)

 

Project title: Formation and transport of atmospheric aerosol in a regional scale in Western Andalusia, Spain, (AER-REG)

Description: The objective of this project is to investigate the mechanisms by which secondary atmospheric aerosols are formed and transported in the regional scale in Huelva (a province of Spain located in Andalusia region). Previous studies in this region showed that some secondary aerosols, such as sulphate, ammonium and nitrate, and organic matter, exhibits a high background in the region, with similar levels in the rural, industrial and urban areas. These high background concentrations are related to the high degree of industrialization in the region and to some favourable conditions related to regional meteorology. The specific objective of the project is to investigate the chemical pathways by which the secondary aerosol are formed and the regional meteorological processes that result in the regional dispersion and transport of those secondary aerosols and their precursors. The project is developed in tow steps. In the first one, a set of field measurements campaigns are performed to collect experimental data of aerosol composition during meteorological scenarios typical of the summer and winter seasons. In the second step, the formation and regional transport of aerosols is modelled at a high resolution by using CAMx.

Financial entity: Departament of Enterprise and Science, Goberment of Andalusia.
Funding budget: 155,000€
Contract number: P07-RNM-3125.
Length: 01-Jan-2008 to 31-Jan-2012).
Number of involved institutions: University of Huelva, CSIC (Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research), NOAA (Air Resources Laboratories), CEAM (Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterraneo), AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center).
Principal investigator: Dr. Sergio Rodríguez
 
 

Project title: Equipo de Investigación Multidisciplinar sobre Cambios Climáticos Graduales y Abruptos y sus Efectos Medioambientales (GRACCIE)

Description: This is a large multidisciplinary research project whose objective is to promote the collaboration between research groups expertise in different areas related with the objective of understanding, analyzing and predicting climate change and its impacts, with emphasis on abrupt changes and extreme events. Interactions between climate change, ecosystems and greenhouse gases budgets and changes in extreme hydrological events in Europe, advanced climate and earth system modelling, climate impacts and public perception, links between climate and global water security will be addressed in line with results of the 4th IPCC assessment report. Adaptation to climate change and its impacts in Europe and Africa, and actions supporting the ‘Bali Roadmap’ and related post-2012 climate policy initiatives will receive particular attention. Other topics such us health effects of climate change, climate / meteorological related hazards, are also investigated.

Financial entity: Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain. CONSOLIDER call.
Funding budget: 5,413,000 €
Contract number: CSD2007-00067. CONSOLIDER.
Length: 01-Jan-2008 to 31-Dec-2012.
Number of involved institutions: CSIC Instituto de Investigaciones Químicas y Ambientales de Barcelona “Josep Pascual Vila”. Resto de centros que participan: Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (CSIC), Centre d´Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CSIC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Fundació Bosch i Gimpera (Universidad de Barcelona), Fundación Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (CSIC- UGR), Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra ‘Jaume Almera’ (CSIC), Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), AEMET – Izaña Atmospheric Research Centre, Parc Científic de Barcelona, The JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability (Italia), Unite Mixte de Recherche CEA-CNRS, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de A Coruña, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Universidad de Alicante, Universidad de Barcelona, Universidad de Berna, Universidad de Cádiz, Universidad de Cantabria, Universidad de Granada, Universidad de Huelva, Universidad de Oviedo, Universidad de Salamanca, Universidad de Vigo, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña.
Principal investigator:Dr.J. O. Grimalt

 

Project title: Spanish network for environmental measurements with DMA (REDMAAS)

Description: The purpose of this project is to prompt the collaboration and interrelationship between the few Spanish groups that works with Differential Mobility Analyzers (DMA) for performing measurements of size distributions of fine and ultrafine particles within the context of air quality and atmospheric science studies. Some of the tasks and questions that are covered by the project are: annual instruments inter-comparisons, quantification of looses within the instruments and in sampling inlets and creation of a data base.

Financial entity: Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain.
Funding budget: 2010 (24000€), 2011 (submitted).
Contract number: CGL2009-07128-E/CLI.
Length. Phase 1 (01-Jan-2010 to 31-Dec-2010), Phase 2 (01-Jan-2011 to 31-Dec-2011, submitted).
Number of involved institutions: CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas), AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center), University of Huelva, CSIC (Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research), University of A Coruña and INTA (Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial).
Principal investigator:Dr. Francisco J. Gómez Moreno

 

Project title: Comprehensive assessment of the impact of particle emissions by automobiles on air quality (EPAU)

Description: The goal is to implement a methodology for assessing the impact of particle emissions by automobiles on the air quality. It is aimed to develop a methodology for assessing the impact of such automobiles emissions on the concentrations of the particle number, black carbon, PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations. The methods should allow assessing the influence of fresh and aged emissions on the size, composition and concentrations of particles in the urban air.

Financial entity: Ministry of Environment of Spain.
Funding budget: 201k€
Contract number: B026/2007/3-10.1
Length: 01-Jan-2007 to 30-Jun-2008.
Number of involved institutions: AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center), University of Huelva and CSIC (Institue of Earth Science Jaume Almera)
Principle investigator: Dr. S. Rodriguez and Dr. M.M. Viana

 

Project title: MONET

Description: The objective is to implement a network for the study of long-term trends of the continental background in Africa and the intercontinental background of persistent organic pollutants as resulting from long-range transport of contaminants from European, South Asian, and other potential source regions, as well as by watching supposedly pristine regions, i.e. the Southern Ocean and Antarctica is designed.

Financial entity: Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention
Funding budget:
Contract number:
Length: 01-Jan-2010 to undermited
Number of involved institutions: Masaryk University, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Central and Eastern European Centre for Persistent Organic Pollutants, eAcademy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center) and other 9 institutions.
Principal investigator: Dr. G. Lammel
 
 

Project title: Multi-platform remote sensing of isotopologues for investigating the cycle of atmospheric water (MUSICA)

Description: MUSICA aims to understand the atmospheric water cycle and its interplay with climate change applying unique long-term high quality and global remote sensing observations of tropospheric stable water vapour isotopologues. It is well established that water in its various forms plays a dominant role in nearly all aspects of the Earth’s climate system. Understanding the full cycle of evaporation, cloud formation, and precipitation is of highest scientific priority for predicting climate change.
The ratio of the isotopologues (e.g. HD16O/H216O) is affected by evaporation, condensation, and cloud processes, and offers a unique opportunity for investigating how water moves through the troposphere. Incorporating isotopologues in atmospheric general circulation models (AGCM) and comparing the isotopologue simulations to observations has the potential to test the models’ ability of reproducing the global atmospheric water cycle and its interplay with climate change. So far this research field has not been explored due to the lack of consistent, long-term, high-quality, and area-wide observational data. MUSICA will for the first time combine long-term ground- and space-based remote sensing measurements in a consistent manner, and will generate novel tropospheric HD16O/H216O data, taking benefit from both the high and well documented quality of the ground-based observations and the wide geographical coverage of the space-based observations. This unique observational data set will allow a new dimension of water cycle research.
MUSICA will collaborate with the Stable Water Isotope Intercomparison Group (SWING) in order to improve current state-of-the-art water isotope AGCMs. MUSICA will investigate and improve the understanding of tropospheric water vapour sources and transport pathways (ocean to continents, surface to upper troposphere, etc.), and empirically assess how well climate feedbacks are captured by current climate models and thereby it will constrain a major uncertainty of climate projections.

Financial entity: European Reasearch Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC
Funding budget: 1.5M €
Contract number: Grant agreement nº 256961
Length: 01/02/2011-31/01/2016
Number of involved institutions: Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK) from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center).
Principal investigator: Dr. Matthias Schneider

 

Project title: Towards a Near Operational Validation of IASI level 2 trace gas products (NOVIA)

Description: Earth observation data sets are fundamental for investigating the processes driving climate change and thus for supporting decisions on climate change mitigation strategies. Atmospheric remote sounding from space is an essential component of this observational strategy, since it allows for a global coverage. However, for a correct scientific interpretation of these observational records a continuous documentation of their quality is required. An optimal method would be a continuous inter-comparison of the space-based observations to high quality reference observations made at the Earth’s surface. In this context, the NOVIA project will exploit the high potential of the Spanish atmospheric super-site IARC (Izaña Atmospheric Research Centre, Tenerife), as a ground-based reference site, to perform the first comprehensive validation of the operational atmospheric level 2 trace gas products water vapour, ozone, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide of the remote sensor IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer).
Within NOVIA we will document to what extent the ground-based data can be used as a reference for the space-based observations. First, we will inter-compare the many different high quality measurement systems operated at IARC, thereby documenting the quality and long-term consistency of the ground-based data. Second, we will analyse the temporal and spatial variability of the atmospheric parameters at IARC in order to decide about the appropriate temporal and spatial coincidence criteria for the validation of space-based measurements with ground-based observations. IARC’s ground-based FTS (Fourier Transform Spectrometer) experiment will be NOVIA’s core reference technique since it is the only measurement technique that can comprehensively validate many different atmospheric trace gas products. By means of this technique, NOVIA will document the quality of the whole IASI-A time series (2007-2012): What is the quality of the water vapour and ozone profiles? To what extent can IASI observe water vapour, ozone, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide annual cycles or anomalies? Is there a drift between the IASI and the ground-based reference data?
For May 2012 the next IASI instrument (IASI-B) is scheduled for launch. Based on our studies about the required coincidence criteria a database for IASI-B overpasses will be created and the comparison between IASI and ground-based FTS products will be performed shortly after the measurement. Such near operational validation of satellite sensor products is strongly requested by the satellite operators and the climate research community. Furthermore, it will be a good strategy for validating the huge amount of data series that will be produced by the next generation of satellite sensors. For instance, besides the three IASI sensors (A, B, and C) there will soon be MTG-IRS (Meteosat Third Generation – Infra Red Sounder) producing trace gas time series with unprecedented high temporal and spatial resolution from a geostationary orbit. Therefore, NOVIA will setup guidelines for the validation of such huge amount of operational climate monitoring products.

Financial entity: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Plan Nacional de I+D 2012.
Funding budget: 131.040 €
Contract number: CGL2012-37505
Length: 01/01/2013-21/12/2015
Number of involved institutions: AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center) and Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK) from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Principal investigator: Dra. Omaira García

 

Project title: VALidation of IASI level 2 products (VALIASI).

Description: The VALIASI project will perform the first comprehensive validation of the IASI level 2 temperature, humidity, and trace gas products (O3, CH4, N2O, CO, CO2). To this end, ground-based FTIR high quality measurements of the total column amounts of H2O, O3, CH4, N2O, CO, CO2 and the vertical profiles of temperature, H2O and O3 will be used as a reference data set. The FTIR data are a key element for climate monitoring and, in fact, given its high potential it is planned to assimilate the FTIR data in the ECMWF’s model.
The work develoved by VALIASI will be fundamental for studies that apply the operational IASI level 2 trace gas products in climate research (e.g., greenhouse gas and water cycle, stratosphere and troposphere processes, etc.). Furthermore, it will allow identifing the leading error sources, which is a prerequisite for further improvements of EUMETSAT’s operational retrieval algorithms.    

Financial entity: EUMETSAT
Funding budget: 75.000 €
Contract number: N/A
Length: 01/01/2013-31/08/2014
Number of involved institutions: AEMET (The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center) and Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK) from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Principal investigator: Dra. Omaira García

     

List of scientific projects at IARC during 2017-2018.