Atmospheric composition

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.

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 

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

Quality Assurance/Quality Control. 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.

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

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 either their own samples.

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

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).

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, on-site reference measurements, round robins, and by reviewing the data. CiGas provides working standards and target gas to NFs and users, links the measurement of ACTRIS reactive trace gases to primary standards and ensures the state-of-the-art traceability international scales.

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, and users.