CREGARS Activities

Links with associated communities

The ACTRIS RI is part of the European and global environmental (and in particular the atmosphere) research community. ACTRIS is also relevant for other stakeholders, like policymakers, Copernicus, some public and commercial actors, … Therefore it is essential that ACTRIS keeps tight links with these associated communities. Similarly, this activity represents CREGARS’ contributions to such activities that maintain and strengthen the links with the associated communities, which is a crucial factor for the success of ACTRIS

 

Training and consultancy

The activity must ensure that ACTRIS beneficiaries and users get trained for performing measurements with the standard ACTRIS instruments adopted in the reactive trace remote sensing component of ACTRIS, and for doing the corresponding data analysis and archival, compliant with the ACTRIS and CREGARS-specific guidelines. It must be ensured that user feedback is taken into account in the maintenance of the training material/approach. Hands-on training activities and events will be communicated and announced via the CREGARS communication channels, and via SAMU.

In order to optimize the cost/benefit ratio of ACTRIS, proposals for the location of new candidate observational platforms, new instruments at existing NF, or the location of exploratory platforms will require consultancy from the CF that has an overview of the distribution of ACTRIS NF in the global landscape of environmental research infrastructures and that will make sure to have access to additional information (e.g., model evaluations, satellite requirements, …) for evaluating the proposals. During the implementation phase, the required modeling support will be consolidated; the actual consultancy task will start in the operational phase only.

 

Measurement and data procedures and tools

This activity must provide all the guidelines and tools that are required to support ACTRIS beneficiaries and users to operate the standard instruments accepted in the Reactive trace gases remote sensing component, to perform the corresponding target data analysis and to make the requested data available for archiving and dissemination in the ACTRIS Data Center, according to the high-quality standards set in ACTRIS and CREGARS.

 

Measurement and data quality monitoring

This Activity must ensure that the L1 and L2 data acquired and archived in ACTRIS comply with the ACTRIS and CREGARS requirements and that this quality is maintained throughout the lifetime of ACTRIS. This implies continuous quality monitoring of the instrumental performances, of the operations and of the data analysis and submission.

 

NF labelling and evaluation

In order to ensure that the implementation of ACTRIS complies with the ACTRIS strategy and quality requirements, observatories/ instrumented platforms must go through an evaluation or labelling procedure. Once the labelling acquired, the NF must be regularly evaluated to verify whether it is still compliant with its label.

 

New scientific and technological developments

It is essential that ACTRIS keeps evolving and develops and implements new technologies and targets new scientific developments. This evolution will also be supported by CREGARS.

 

Management and coordination

The objective of this Activity is to manage the implementation and the operation of CREGARS, at the different CREGARS levels (CREGARS director, clusters, and Units) and to make sure that all levels collaborate in a coordinated way for a common objective. This Activity must also ensure that CREGARS plays its role in the ACTRIS RI as expected, serving the ACTRIS beneficiaries and users, and that it is visible towards the outside world.

Variables & measurement techniques

Current supported variables are: ozone (O3) column, partial column and vertical profile; nitrogen dioxide (NO2) column, partial columns and lower tropospheric profile; formaldehyde (HCHO) column and lower tropospheric profile; ethane (C2H6) column; ammonia column (NH3).

The table below shows the possible instrument configurations to achieve the mandatory, specialized or optimum set-up for a CREGARS National Facility. Note that CREGARS will also service instruments that are attached to other ACTRIS National facilities even if their configuration does not grant them full CREGARS National Facility status.

FTIR

High resolution solar absorption Fourier transform spectrometers can be either equiped with an InSb detector (single FTIR set-up) or with a MCT and InSb detector (double FTIR). To achieve the mandatory CREGARS National Facility status, the first needs to be combined with a UV-VIS instrument

 

UV-VIS

The UV-VIS CREGARS team supports SOAZ, Pandora and MAX-DOAS instruments. The latter allows for profile measurements by varying its scan angle.

 

 

 

O3 DIAL LIDAR

Ozone Dial (Differential Absorption) LIDARS yield high resolution ozone vertical profile concentrations up to a few kilometers.

 

 

 

 

Techniques and target gases
> Variable

>NF Requirements
Mandatory-M
Specializing-S
Optimum-O

>Approx
height
resolution

>Single FTIR >Double FTIR >UVVIS-Zenith Sky >UVVIS-MAXDOAS >UVVIS-PANDORA >O3 DIAL
Ozone Profile O few hundred meters to few km            
Ozone Partial Column O 5 to 8 km            
Ozone total Column M NA            

Formaldehyde
total column

M NA            
Formaldehyde
lower tropo
profile
O few hundred meters to few km            
NO2 total column M NA            
NO2 strato column S stratospheric column            
NO2 lower tropo profile O -            
NH3 total column S NA            
C2H6 total column M -            

Section- Recent achievements

In development.

 

Section- Publications & documents

In development.