CARE-C hosted Aristotle University of Thessaloniki students for ATMO-ACCESS funded TransNational Access visit and EVIAN campaign participation
Master students, Georgia Peletidou and Panagiota Alvanou, from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, visited the premises of CARE-C’s Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory in Cyprus, in the framework of ATMO-ACCESS which enables researchers to access first-class atmospheric facilities in Europe. The EVIAN campaign (Aerosol vertical profiling with lidars and drones), focuses on the comparison and integration between data from different instruments and specifically between LIDAR data and OPC “drone- borne” data.
The EVIAN campaign took place in Nicosia from 31/10/2022 to 4/11/2022. The master students teamed up with scientists from CARE-C’s CAO remote sensing group to plan and conduct drone flights together with the Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory of CYI (USRL), from Orounda. In total 11 flights were performed with the POPS OPC on a multirotor drone. In addition to the air-borne measurements, real-time data were available from the CIMEL lidar in Nicosia, CL51 Ceilometer in Agia Marina, and CIMEL sunphotometers in Nicosia, Agia Marina and Troodos stations.
In general, a very good sample of measurements, was obtained, useful for studying the aerosol particles over the Nicosia area. Dust load was measured during all the flights and also smoke particles on the 2/11 for the Orounda area. Comparing the data from the different areas, the presence of urban pollution was confirmed with the Nicosia station having in general higher aerosol load in the boundary layer than the other two locations (Agia Marina and Troodos).
Apart from the campaign, the master students had the chance to participate in the 2nd Annual Workshop organized by CARE-C on Climate and Atmosphere Research and Innovation in the EMME and get an idea on the atmospheric research going on in the EMME region by the Cyprus Institute and other research institutions. In conclusion, the general image created by the campaign is that the synergy of in-situ profiles of concentration and optical properties can provide valuable information for the evaluation of various methodologies that estimate concentrations of the aerosols (fine and/or coarse mode) based on lidar data. Using the obtained in situ profiles can provide useful layer information in the height region where due to the geometry of the lidar observations there in no full overlap between the laser beam and the telescope field of view and thus can improve our capabilities for overlap correction of the lidar products. This TNA gave the opportunity to the master Georgia and Panagiota for the first time to participate in a field campaign with drone-based instrumentation and this knowledge will be transferred back to their institution for conducting their own synergy studies.
