The full list of projects contains the entire database hosted on this portal, across the available directories. The projects and activities (across all directories/catalogs) are also available by country of origin, by geographical region, or by directory.
The project will provide a long-term, pseudo-global validation support to the ENVISAT-1 atmospheric measurements, based on mutually consistent high-quality solar and lunar observations from FTIR spectrometers operated at primary and a number of complementary NDSC stations. The validation is limited to a number of target species, most of which are primary NRT or OL level-2 products of the mission, with focus on NOy components: O3, NO2, NO, N2O, HNO3, HNO4, H2CO, CO and CH4. Synergistic use will be made of column and profile data from MIPAS, GOMOS and SCIAMACHY. The ground network will deliver mean vertical column abundances for all target species with NDSC-type quality, and height profile information for some target gases as secondary products to the PI's home institute, where the correlative analyses with the ENVISAT-1 products will be done. Asynoptic mapping tools will support the validation efforts.
The main specific objectives of UFTIR are: (1) To revise and homogenise the analyses of available experimental data for providing consistent time series of distinct tropospheric and stratospheric abundances of the target gases using new inversion algorithms. A common strategy for retrieval and characterisation of the vertical distributions of the target gases from FTIR ground-based measurements will be established. (2) To provide quantitative trends and associated uncertainties for the target gases over about the last decade, as a function of latitude throughout Western Europe, focusing on the troposphere. (3) To integrate the data in model assessments of the evolutions of tropospheric abundances. The measured burden and changes of the tropospheric gases will be compared with 3D model simulations, in order to help developing the latter, assist in explaining potential causes for the observed changes and to assess the consistencies between the trends at the surface to the free troposphere and lowermost stratosphere, and the agreement with known evolutions of emissions. UFTIR will make the community prepared to deliver tropospheric data for validation and synergistic exploitation of new satellite experiments like ENVISAT.
The aim of the project is to study the properties (radiative effects, composition) of aerosols using FTIR emission spectroscopy. To determine seasonal changes in aerosol properties the measurements will be carried out year round on a weekly schedule.
The current scientific knowledge does not allow estimating accurately the surface radiative forcing caused by tropospheric aerosols and their influence on the evolution of the Earth climate. The radiative forcing depends on the optical properties of the aerosols at solar and thermal infrared wavelengths. These optical properties depend, in turn, on the chemical composition and size of the aerosols. Remote sensing with passive radiation sensors operating in the above-mentioned spectral ranges allows to measure the optical properties of the aerosols and to characterise their temporal variability. These data are needed for regional climate simulations of the Arctic, particularly for delineating the impact of the Arctic haze phenomenon. In this project, a synergetic effort will be made to obtain information about the radiative and microphysical properties of springtime arctic aerosols. Therefore, a polarisation-spectrometer for the solar spectral range, which is currently developed at the Free University of Berlin as a variant of the FUBISS spectrometer, will be operated from the surface in coincidence with the Fourier Transform InfraRed-spectrometer (FTIR) installed at Ny-Aalesund by the AWI. The former instrument measures the intensity and polarisation of the scattered solar radiation from the visible to the near-infrared. The latter measures the radiation emitted by the Atmosphere itself in the thermal infrared window region. Together, they thus provide a wealth of information about the aerosol optical properties at the interesting wavelengths (spectral optical depth, single-scattering albedo, and asymmetry factor of the phase function), which will allow inferring the aerosol microphysical properties. Complementary measurements of the aerosol microphysical properties will be provided by an aerosol volatility analyser, which is maintained by the University of Leeds and will also be brought to Ny-Aalesund. This instrument comprises a fast response scanning volatility system and an optical particle counter. From the thermal response of the aerosol number and the change in the size distribution conclusions can be inferred about the chemical composition and the state of mixing of aerosols as a function of size.
Aim of the project is to develop a cost-effective long-term European observation system for halocarbons and to predict and assess impacts of the halocarbons on the climate and on the ozone layer. Beside the routine observations within the NDSC it is planned to perform with FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) absorption measurements of CFCs (e.g. SF6, CCl2F2, CHF2Cl) and related species on much more observation days.
The aim of the project is to perform solar and lunar absorption measurements of atmospheric trace gases for the valdation of the SCIAMACHY satellite. Besides the routine observations within the NDSC it is planned to perform more intense measurements, especially during the satellite overpasses.
The FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) has been established as a powerful tool for measurements of atmospheric trace gases. Using the sun or moon as light source, between 20-30 trace gases of the tropo- and stratosphere can be detected by their absorption features. The analysis of the spectra allow to retrieve the total zenith columns of the trace gases. The aim of the SAMMOA project is to study the stratospheric ozon depletion during the summer time period. While the processes during winter/spring are investigated in detail the summertime ozone loss has not been studied so far. Therefore FTIR solar absorption measurements of ozone and related species are to be done on much more observation days beside the routine observations within the NDSC