Calibration of field photometers @ Center for Aerosol Remote Sensing CARS

Transfer of the necessary expertise to operators of an ACTRIS labeled NF and external users (businesses, researchers, monitoring agencies, etc.) to improve their competencies for conducting measurements, data acquisition, data evaluation, and QA/QC measures while covering up to date guidelines and SOPs for anthropogenic NMHCS, biogenic NMHCs, OVOCs, condensables, and NOx. The consultancy shall be

CiGas develops measurement Guidelines (MGs) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for biogenic NMHCs, OVOCs and condensable vapours and updates the existing ones for anthropogenic NMHCs and NOx), based on proven procedures and methodologies in close cooperation with international bodies (e.g. Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), National Metrological Institutes (NMIs), AQUILA, EMEP, CEN, ISO), NFs, a

CiGas provides support to the NFs and users for achieving traceability of measurements, quality assurance and quality control of the measurements and the data before submission to public databases. Therefore, data quality and compatibility of ACTRIS trace gas measurements as defined in the MG are ensured by station performance tests as parallel offline measurements, side-by-side intercomparisons,

Organization of training events of operators and scientists to fulfill different requirements: calibration procedures or techniques, training of new operators, support for implementing standard operating procedures, data quality control procedures. It will have a limited number (10-20) of participants and will be organized at the different CCRES units depending on the topics. NF operators are enco

Development and evaluation of new methodologies in the field of organic tracers and carbonaceous species in the aerosol. Service open to external users (including private enterprises).

Consultancy and knowledge transfer via higher education institutions, website and discussion forum.

Operators and scientists are trained through courses, workshops and hands-on training sessions.

The performance of methods and instruments for measuring organic tracers and carbonaceous constituents in aerosols is evaluated against European standards.

Check of compliance with ACTRIS recommendations (instrument type, participation in calibration workshops, operation according to SOPs, operator qualification, scope of applicability). Check of instrument diagnostic variables. Check of measurement data plausibility.

Provision of up-to-date guidelines for measuring organic tracers and carbonaceous constituents in aerosols.

The performance of NFs measuring particulate organic tracers and carbonaceous constituents is evaluated based on: QA/QC outputs, participation in inter-laboratory comparisons, calibration and training workshops, and effective data reporting to ACTRIS DC. Service not available to external users

CiGas is involved in improving, testing and developing new instrumentation for assessing the ACTRIS chemical target variables in air. Specifically, the suitability of new instruments for long-term monitoring within ACTRIS and the conformity with the data quality objectives is tested and characterized.

Measurement, Data, and Technological services related to cloud and fog properties. Data evaluation procedures and plausibility tests developed to evaluate the quality of geophysical parameter retrievals and qualify data before it enters the ACTRIS database. Doppler cloud radar and microwave radiometer data should be sent by NFs to the ACTRIS Cloud Remote Sensing Data Centre. The DC should then be

Technological services related to cloud and fog properties. Provision of network-wide accurate calibration of the instruments installed in ACTRIS NFs following harmonized protocols and tools to put all measurements on a common absolute scale. The calibration service could be provided at the TC facility or at NFs, depending on the feasibility. It offers low-uncertainty reference calibration accordi

CiGas evaluates the NF labeling application and the conformity of the NF with respect to the MGs and SOPs.The NFs are visited by the units for audits with the objective to check the performance of the NF according to the MGs and SOP provided by the audit unit. Deviations from data quality objectives (DQOs) deserve special attention. During an audit, the following will be evaluated: (1) The samplin

Measurement and technological services related to cloud and fog properties. Documents describing operation procedures that ACTRIS National Facility operators must follow to obtain an ACTRIS Cloud Remote Sensing label. These Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are defined to ensure the correct deployment of instruments and the optimal settings to perform routine measurements at ACTRIS National Fac

Measurement and technological services related to cloud and fog properties. Standard procedures for quality assurance developed and provided to NFs to ensure that instrument operators have the means to monitor measurement quality and can take corrective actions when measurement quality changes. A list of housekeeping data and QA/QC flags will be developed to identify measurements that are not comp

Research and technological services related to cloud and fog properties. The CCRES is offering development and delivery of tested and traceable procedures for specific calibration of DCRs and MWRs, possibly including multiple techniques: absolute calibration based on calibrated targets, relative calibration using calibration transfer from a reference instrument, absolute calibration using geophys

Technological services related to cloud and fog properties. Provision of software tools and visualization tools to check the instrument performance and possible calibration trends. This includes In-house check-up tools that operators at NF can execute to analyze the housekeeping parameters automatically stored by the instrument in order to monitor the instrument performance and stability.

This activity disseminates the knowledge of the CAIS/ECAC to the stakeholders. The knowledge transfer includes education and training activities organized by the CAIS/ECAC and different units.