Consortium

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR OPTOELECTRONICS – INOE

MAX PLANCK GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN E.V. – MPI-M

DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUER LUFT – UND RAUMFAHRT EV – DLR

NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS – NOA

CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE – CNR

Meetings/Events

ECARS kick off meeting, February 10^th, Bucharest Romania.

Networking

INOE is currently contributing to several European and global networks, having full access to the technological novelties, standard operation procedures, algorithms and data products.

• ACTRIS – Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research Infrastructure Network represents a group of ground-based stations equipped with advanced atmospheric probing instrumentation for aerosols, clouds, and short-lived gas-phase species. ACTRIS has an essential role to support building of new knowledge as well as policy issues on climate change, air quality, and long-range transport of pollutants. INOE is one of the 15 sites submitting aerosol measurements profiles to ACTRIS data base. ACTRIS data (open) and technology will be used for training activities related to ground-based lidars, lidar-radar and lidar-photometer synergy, and data exploitation. ACTRIS is a network of networks, three of them operating remote sensing instruments.
• EARLINET – European Aerosol Research Lidar NETwork currently with 27 lidar stations in Europe has developed a suite of quality assurance methods at both the hardware and software level to ensure the quality of lidar products. INOE is part of the network since 2005, submitting data from the regular measurements (two hours three times per week) and from special events (dust intrusions, volcano and biomass burning plumes) in order to establish the unbiased aerosol climatology.
• AERONET-Aerosol Robotic Network is a program involving over 300 passive remote sensing stations across the world producing routinely, in real time and publically available, high-quality aerosol column integrated properties such as AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth), optical and microphysical properties and many others derived radiative properties widely used by academic and industrial actors involved in climate and air-quality fields. It is strongly contributing, at the European level, to several relevant integration/synergetic activities with lidar, in situ observation, satellite and modelling. INOE’s sunphotometer is part of AERONET since 2007.
• CLOUDNET – is a network of stations for the continuous evaluation of cloud and aerosol profiles in operational NWP models. The core instruments used in cloud retrievals at each site are a Doppler cloud radar, a low-power lidar ceilometer, a dual- or multiwavelength microwave radiometer, and a rain gauge. INOE does not currently operate a cloud radar (the rest of the instruments are available), therefore it does not contribute to CLOUDNET. However, the procurement of this instrument is a top priority and is included in the strategy of the institute, to be achieved using dedicated structural funds (the operational programme for competitiveness POC-A1-A1.1.1-2014-x25).
• GALION GAW program (Global Atmosphere Watch) of the WMO (World Meteorological Organization- Aerosol Lidar Observations Network is a network of continental lidar networks, selected for optimal coverage to provide the vertical component of the spatio-temporal distribution of aerosol properties. INOE operates a GAW regional station.