The European Brewer Network

The COST Action ES1207 coordinates Brewer spectrophotometer measurements of total ozone column, spectral UV irradiance and aerosol optical depth (AOD) in the UV range within Europe. The main objective of this initiative is to unite the ozone, UV and AOD European communities through a formally network (EUBREWNET) capable of delivering a consistent, spatially homogeneous European data resource.

A Brewer ozone spectrophotometer open congress will take place in Tenerife 24-28 of March 2014. This event is a joint collaboration of EUBREWNET and WMO-GAW Brewer Users Group and will focus on operational, scientific and technical issues of the Brewer instrument.

More information at:

http://www.eubrewnet.org/cost1207/

Workshop on Duststorms and Environmental Impact Assessments

The 7th International Workshop on Sand/Duststorms and Associated Dustfall will be held in Frascati, near Rome, from 2 to 4 December 2013.

The main scientific objectives of the conference are to obtain an update of current knowledge and research programs on dust and its impacts, to disseminate recent  results, to facilitate information exchange, especially with young scientists as  well as to identify current research priorities with a special focus on satellite  remote sensing.

The conference has no registration fee and the deadline for abstract submission is  15 September.

More information can be found at

http://dustworkshop2013.enea.it/

Ph.D. thesis about desert dust aerosols

My colleague Antonio Valenzuela from University of Granada has just presented his Ph.D. thesis entitle “African desert dust event impact over Southeastern Spain (2005-2010): aerosol radiative properties and forcing”.

This thesis focuses on the analysis of the optical and microphysical properties of the atmospheric aerosol during African dust outbreaks recorded at Granada. These properties were classified according to potential source sector and also applying a cluster analysis. Additionally, the influence of the studied desert dust event on shortwave radiative forcing at the surface and the top of the atmosphere were also evaluated using a radiative transfer code fed with experimental sun-photometer data.

Major advances presented in this work are related to the implementation and application of a new methodology for deriving atmospheric columnar optical and microphysical properties using sky radiance in principal plane configuration, and considering that the particles are not spherical

This Ph.D. dissertation can be downloaded at:

PhD_Antonio_Valenzuela.pdf 

Congratulations Dr. Valenzuela !!!.

Summer schools on aerosol science in 2013

Two interesting events related to the atmospheric aerosol science will carry out in 2013. In May, the “9th SummerSchool on Atmospheric Aerosol Physics, Measurement, and Sampling” will be held in Hyytiälä (Finland). This summer school is an advanced course to deepen the training aspects for diverse atmospheric aerosol measurements. The course is organized within the frame of the EU-project ACTRIS. Then, University of Vienna will organize the summer school "BasicAerosol Science" in July which offers a broad education in atmospheric aerosol science with lectures, assignments, discussions, and demonstration experiments. Both summer schools are mainly intended for Ph.D students and young scientists.

Initial Training for Atmospheric Remote Sensing

Initial Training for Atmospheric Remote Sensing (ITARS) is a research project in the framework of the interdisciplinary Marie-Curie Initial Training Networks. ITARS aims at improving our understanding of aerosols, clouds, and aerosol-cloud interaction processes and their role in both climate and weather.

ITRAS invites applications for 11 Early Stage Researcher (ESR, 3 year PhD) positions in 7 European countries. For this purpose, the PhD projects will focus on high-end ground-based remote-sensing instrumentation, synergistic observations and/or mathematical methods. For more information please click here.

Atmospheric Science Events in 2012

During the next year 2012, there will take place several interesting conferences related to the Atmospheric Sciences:

- International Radiation Symposium, 6-10 August, Berlin, Germany

- Quadrennial Ozone Symposium, 27-31 August, Toronto, Canada

- European Aerosol Conference, 2-7 September, Granada, Spain

- Atmospheric Science Conference, 18-22 June, Bruges, Belgium

- EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference, 3-7 September, Sopot, Poland

- EGU General Assembly, 22-27 April, Vienna, Austria

- SPIE Remote Sensing, 24-27 September, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

- IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 22-27 July, Munich, Germany

- International Conference on Clouds and Precipitation, July 30 - August 03, Leipzyg, Germany

- European Meeting on Atmospheric Studies by Optical Methods, 20-24 August, Sopot, Poland

- International Conference on Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics, May 30 - 1 June, Athens, Grecee

ACTRIS Project

ACTRIS (Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure Network) is a European Project aiming at integrating European ground-based stations equipped with advanced atmospheric probing instrumentation for aerosols, clouds, and short-lived gas-phase species. This European ground-based network will contribute to:

- providing long-term observational data relevant to climate and air quality research produced with standardized or comparable procedures;

- supporting transnational access to large infrastructures strengthening collaboration in and outside the EU and access to high quality information and services to the user communities;

- developing new integration tools to fully exploit the use of atmospheric techniques at ground-based stations, in particular for the calibration/validation/integration of satellite sensors and for the improvement of global and regional-scale climate and air quality models.

UV radiation, Ozone and Aerosols over the Iberian Peninsula

The JGR has recently published three papers about these topics. Bilbao and de Miguel (2010) studied an empirical relationship between the solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) in the range (280–315 nm) and the total global solar irradiation (G) in Valladolid (Spain). The results showed that G is an appropriate variable to obtain UV-B daily values in places where UV radiation is not measured or to extend the existing data set back in time. Mladenove et al. (2010) analyzed the relationships between spectroscopic (fluorescence and absorbance) properties of the water-soluble organic compounds in aerosol deposition and ground-based remote sensing measurements of aerosols in the atmospheric column in Granada (Spain). They found important differences between Saharan- and marine-dominated organic aerosols. Antón et al (2010) compared the total ozone retrieved with the passive DOAS methodology from zenith-sky observations by the SPATRAM spectrometer located in Evora (Portugal) with highly accurate total ozone data retrieved from direct-sun recordings by a well-calibrated Brewer instrument in El Arenosillo (Spain). The results showed that the differences observed between both systems is not associated with the natural spatial variability of the total ozone.

Interesting events in 2010

During the year 2010, there will take place several interesting events related to the Atmospheric Sciences:

- EGU (European Geosciences Union, General Assembly 2010), 2-7 May, Vienna, Austria.

- 37th Annual European Meeting on Atmospheric Studies by Optical Methods , 23-27 August, Valladolid, Spain.

- IAC (International Aerosol Conference) , 29 August- 3 September, Helsinki, Finland.

- SPIE Remote Sensing, 20-23 September, Toulouse, France.

- EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference, 20-24 September, Cordoba, Spain.

Atmospheric aerosol charecterization

A very interesting paper has been recently published in ACP about the atmospheric aerosol characterization for North Africa, Northeastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and Middle East. This work is based on the analysis of quality-assured direct-sun observations of 39 stations of the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET). Its main objectives are two: to discriminate different aerosol types and to quantify the contribution of mineral dust. Large mineral dust is found to be the most important constituent in Northern Africa and Middle East. Under specific meteorological conditions, its transport to Southern Europe is observed from spring to autumn and decreasing with latitude.

More information in:

http://www.atmos-chem-phys.org/9/8265/2009/acp-9-8265-2009.html

GlobAEROSOL

GlobAEROSOL is a project whose aim is to produce a global aerosol data set (1995-2007) from merging ATSR-2, AATSR, MERIS and SEVIRI satellite data.

The specific objetives of this project are:
1. Development of a satellite data processing system to generate a standard reference multi-year global aerosol product (GAP) over land and water.
2. Production of the GAP covering 1995–2007.
3. Validation of the GAP using independent ground-based measurements.
4. Intercomparison of the GAP with other satellite-based aerosol data sets.

Detailed information in: http://www.globaerosol.info/

Spanish Lidar Network (SPALINET)

The Spanish Lidar Network (http://www.lidar.es/spalinet/en/) was created on 1 January, 2007. It aims to promote the use of lidar instruments and data among the Spanish scientific community. The mains goals of the network are:

• Extend and reinforce the actions of EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network to Establish an Aerosol Climatology).
• The formation of a nucleus for the development of the Spanish and Portuguese lidar community.
• Promote the participation of new groups for improving the spatial coverage of aerosol vertical measurements on the Iberian Peninsula territory.

COST 726 Aerosol Climatology over Europe

The COST 726 Aerosol Climtology over Europe (25°W to 35°E and 31°N to 80°N) consists of monthly mean values of AOT at 308 nm in one data file (ascii).

If altitude is higher than 1 km the following correction should be applied: AOT=AOT / (altitude[km])^1.65

Further:
Angstrom coefficient: 1
Single scattering albedo: 0.94
Asymmetry factor: 0.75

This climatology is free for non-comercial use.

Direct SW aerosol radiative forcing over Portugal

The aerosol research team belong to the Geophysics Centre of Évora (Portugal) has published an interesting article in ACP. This paper analyses the evaluation of the aerosol radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere as well as at the surface over two ground-based stations located at the south of Portugal. The instantaneous direct SW aerosol radiative forcing values obtained at the top of the atmosphere are, in the majority of the cases, negative, indicating a tendency for cooling the Earth at the top of the atmosphere. The average surface direct SW aerosol radiative forcing efficiency is also negative with the more negative values corresponding to forest fire aerosols.

Met-jobs

If you would like to receive regular mailings of job adverts in Atmospheric Science, please visit the Met-jobs mailing list

To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the Met-jobs Archives.

12th Biennial WMO-GAW Brewer Users Group Meeting

This workshop will focus on the science and technical issues of the Brewer instrument and its role in the global ozone, aerosol and UV monitoring networks. In addition, there will also be a special data analysis session aimed at helping Brewer users perform the analysis and quality control functions needed to prepare Brewer data records for use in the 2010 WMO Ozone Assessment.

The meeting will be hosted by the Aosta Valley Regional Environmental Protection Agency (ARPA), Aosta (Italy), 20-26 September 2009.

More information in the meeting web site.

The strongest desert dust intrusion over the Iberian Peninsula

Cachorro et al. have published an interesting article in JGR. They analyze the strongest desert dust intrusion that occurred over the Iberian Peninsula (IP) during the last decade registered with Sun photometry. This extreme episode took place from 22 July to 3 August 2004. The most relevant features of this exceptional event, originated over the Saharan desert, were its great intensity and duration. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) reached a maximum of 2.7 at El Arenosillo during 22 July and 1.3 at Palencia on 23 July, with the Ansgtrom exponent values near zero during the AOD peaks.

Active fire monitoring over continental Portugal

The Active Fire Monitoring (FIR) is a product that displays information on the presence of fire within a pixel and it is obtained directly from the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The information for continental Portugal is made available in this page in near real time (15 to 20 minutes delay) with a spatial resolution of 3×3km².

European Fleet for Airborne Research (EUFAR)

EUFAR (http://www.eufar.net/) is an European project which aims at coordinating the operations of the European fleet of instrumented aircraft in the field of environmental research in the atmospheric, marine, terrestrial and Earth sciences. EUFAR is divided in several expert working groups such as aerosols, radiation and remote sensing.

EUFAR is organizing its 2nd Summer School on Airborne Cloud and AerosolScience (ACAS) open to PhD students and Post Docs. This school will take place in Utrecht, The Netherlands from April 14th to April 25th 2008. The aim of the school is to train students in airborne research focused on aerosols and clouds.

Aerosol references and links

My colleage Dra. Sandra Mogo from University of Beira Interior (Portugal) focuses her research on the nature and behavior of aerosols (optical properties, laboratory and field measurements, optical instrumentation, radiative forcing and modelization). Sandra has a close collaboration with the Atmospheric Optical Group from University of Valladolid (Spain).

Sandra's web-page contains two very interesting lists about aerosol science:

• Absorption references
  
• Links