ACTRIS becomes an ERIC – European Research Infrastructure

We are pleased to welcome you our new research member at the Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology at the University of Cologne, ERIC!

The European Commission has legally recognized the ACTRIS project as a European research infrastructure consortium for atmospheric research and granted it the status of a consortium, shortly known as ERIC! ACTRIS stands for Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure -and represents an international network of high-quality observations of variable atmospheric constituents. Long-term ACTRIS observations are thus intended to help reduce uncertainties in the diagnosis and prediction of future climate. Across Europe, more than 100 institutions are involved in ACTRIS, which together form the largest multi-site atmospheric research infrastructure in the world. For its contribution to the ACTRIS project, the Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology will receive a total of 4.5 million euros in funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for a period of five years. With this funding, the cloud observation platform JOYCE, which is located at the Foschungszentrum Jülich and is a central component of the CPEX-LAB of the Geoverbund ABC/J (Geo Science Union of the Universities Aachen, Bonn and Cologne and the Forschungszentrum Jülich), will be significantly expanded to continue to observe the life cycle of clouds. JOYCE data will be quality-controlled and continuously provided to the whole ACTRIS research community  So, ERIC, let’s get started!

Presentation of the FRM4Radar project at ESA

In Spring 2023 we went to ESA ESRIN in Frescati, near Rome, to present the results of almost 5 year work in the FRM4Radar project. On behave of ESA in FRM4Radar we investigated the best practices to validate the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPA) on board of ESAs future satellite mission EarthCARE. Together with our international partners from Romania (INOE), Sweden (SMHI) and Finland (FMI) we installed new radars in Europa. Within the project we develop methods for data processing, radar quality control and cloud radar operation to best generate data sets for the validation of EarthCAREs CPR instrument.

ESA as the Euopean Space Agency is responsible to launch also research satellites, as for example EarthCARE or AEOLOS Foto 5. From time to time, we as scientists are involved in the designing process of satellite missions, the proposal of instrumentation, and the data processing and products generated. EarthCARE is still not launched and so the project was a nice opportunity to get involved into a ESA mission in the prelaunch phase.

The picture shows AEOLUS satellite

Probing the Atmospheric Baoundary Layer at European scale – PROBE

Hervorgehoben

The Jülich ObservatorY for Cloud Evolution (JOYCE) takes part in the European Union founded Cost action PROBE. PROBE aims to investigate the capacity building of instrument operators to improve the use of state-of-the-art ABL profiling instruments and fostering coordination between operational agencies and academia to tailor measurement networks for well identified applications. Farther, knowledge brokers shell be identified to enable rapid exchange between academia, operational agencies, industry and end-users to ensure full exploitation for societal benefit. And therefore, the pan-European research coordination enhanced to develop new products and tools for data assimilation and long time series reanalysis
Within PROBE, the CPEX-LAB Expertise in setting up and operating cloud radar and microwave radiometers is applied to a European framework.

See also the PROBE homepage

Aerosol, Cloud and Trac-Gas Research Infrastructre – ACTRIS

Hervorgehoben

The Jülich ObservatorY for Cloud Evolution (JOYCE) has contributed to the ground-based cloud observation network (Cloudnet) since 2010. Cloudnet was followed up by ACTRIS which is currently being established as a long-term sustainable European research infrastructure. Within ACTRIS, the JOYCE observation platform is planned to be extended. Also, JOYCE will serve as the microwave radiometer node within the ACTRIS Center for Cloud Remote Sensing (CCRES).

See also the ACTRIS homepage for more information or

see the Press Release for the German ACTRIS contribution