ACTRIS Marketplace

Calibration of the instruments according to ACTRIS and TC recommendations

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 according to robust calibration techniques.

QA/QC according to ACTRIS reccommendations and operation guidelines

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 encouraged to participate regularly (once every 2 years). External users are likely to come from national weather services, possibly in the framework of the European E-PROFILE program for MWRs and DLs, and operators involved in airport traffic safety. Training is provided in the form of physical access and virtual-access training is also envisaged.

Measurement guidelines for NFs for instruments dealing with aerosol physical properties (for observational and exploratory platforms)

Consultancy on Doppler cloud radars and microwave radiometers to the NFs that would like to have new observational or exploratory platforms, and new instruments. Based on its experience, the TC provides consultancy during visits,  discussions, workshops and supports to the manufacturers. The TC is proposing :
• A service for instrument location definition and site selection support;
• A draft of technical requirements and standard operational support;
• A methodology to analyze instrument performance and selection.

Scientific exploration at outdoor chambers for the study of atmospheric behavior of biogenic and anthropogenic VOCs, formation of products including ozone and aerosols under near-real conditions (use of natural light & high volume: 200m3) and their impact on the air quality. The chambers are equipped with a wide variety of instruments, also state-of-the-art systems, for that purpose. Intercomparison of instrumentation with the possibility of accommodating a large number of external instruments can be carried out. The facilities are suitable for testing, developing or improving new instruments to measure compounds in the air, testing innovative depolluting solutions relevant to air quality management, etc. In this sense, the facilities can be adapted to specific user’s demands so that researchers and industry can test their research-grade and close-to-market initiatives at nearly-real controlled conditions, which will help them to characterize and enhance their prototypes and technologies, models or research items.
Training stays, bottom-up oriented, within a research topic framework guided by expert staff are welcome.

Provision of space and infrastructure to test new instruments. Performance,  accuracy, stability and calibration procedures can be assessed by comparing them to established and well-characterized instruments. This service is proposed to NFs and ACTRIS users.

1) Calibration of photometer, QA QC support, evaluation of site performances, Traceability, duty cycle increase, development of new instrument and procedure, development of new algorithms, support to campaigns, training

2) Quality assured data, access to all AERONET and ACTRIS data

The access to the centralized processing system allows the users to retrieve aerosol optical properties profiles using the same processing chain implemented within ACTRIS.

Following the development of the field (research organizations, private companies) and evaluates the new techniques, whether they could i) replace some of the existing technologies that are used to measure ACTRIS in-situ aerosol variables, ii) improve the capacity of aerosol in-situ observations, iii) be technologically developed enough for network scale operation.

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.

Development and evaluation of new methodologies in the field of analysis of the elemental composition of aerosols. Service open to external users (including private enterprises).

Operators and scientists are trained through courses, workshops and hands-on training sessions. The training enables the operators and scientists to be introduced into the measurement guidelines/SOPs, QA/QC criteria and control, and troubleshooting. Participants are trained in sample preparation, sample analysis and quantification with different instruments. Participants can bring their own samples.

The performance of methods and instruments for measuring the elemental composition of aerosols is evaluated against distributed reference standards.