EGU General Assembly 2026 – Strong participation of CARE-C at Europe’s leading Geosciences Conference

Members of the Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C) of The Cyprus Institute participated in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2026, which took place at the Austria Center Vienna, in Vienna, Austria, from 27 April to 2 May 2026. Through oral and poster presentations, scientific sessions, and project representation, CARE-C researchers contributed to discussions on atmospheric sciences, climate research, air pollution, environmental monitoring, remote sensing, and environmental research infrastructures. It is also worth noting that CARE-C Adjunct Associate Professor Andrea Pozzer has been elected President of the EGU Atmospheric Sciences Division for the next two years.

Within the context of the ENVRINNOV project, coordinated by The Cyprus Institute, CARE-C staff represented the project at the ENVRI community booth and contributed to a training session focused on Intellectual Property (IP) management and technology transfer.

Additionally, within the framework of the CleanCloud project, CARE-C staff also participated in a splinter meeting of the EC-ESA Aerosol Cloud Interaction (ACI) Cluster held during EGU. The meeting brought together researchers from EU and ESA-funded initiatives working on aerosol-cloud interactions, climate research, and atmospheric processes, highlighting the importance of cross-project collaboration for improving climate predictions and supporting future policy processes.

Overall, the strong CARE-C presence at EGU 2026 reflected the Centre’s growing contribution to international atmospheric and climate research. More than 20 CARE-C researchers, professors, technical and administrative staff, and PhD students participated in the conference, delivering 12 oral presentations, presenting 6 posters, and convening or co-convening 6 scientific sessions. The participation provided an important opportunity to showcase CARE-C research activities, strengthen collaborations with the international scientific community, and support scientific dialogue on current environmental and climate challenges.

In more detail, CARE-C members participated in the conference as follows:

Poster Presentations:

CARE-C Director Professor Jean Sciare – ‘Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) as Enabling Platforms for Next-Generation Environmental Research Infrastructures’
Research Scientist George Zittis – ‘The 2024 Hajj heat disaster: a glimpse into the future’
Senior Research Technical Scientist Pierre-Yves Quehe – ‘A methane-controlled release system for small and intermediate emission quantification with associated drone airspace’
PhD student/Graduate Research Fellow Roubina Papaconstantinou – ‘Concurrent Mobile-Aerial Monitoring of Landfill Methane Emissions’
PhD student/Graduate Research Fellow Maria Gavrouzou – ‘Dynamical downscaling of EC-Earth3-Veg over the EURO-CORDEX domain with WRF: A contribution to CORDEX-CORE Phase II’
PhD student/Graduate Research Fellow Aristotelis Liakakos – ‘A new magnitude-based approach to detect year-round warm spells and their recent intensification’

Oral Presentations:

Adjunct Associate Professor Andrea Pozzer – ‘Changes in global atmospheric oxidant chemistry from land cover conversion’
Assistant Professor Efstratios Bourtsoukidis – ‘Environmental change is reshaping the temperature sensitivity of sesquiterpene emissions and their atmospheric impacts’
Associate Professor Tuija Joken – ‘Direct in-situ molecular speciation of atmospheric oxidized mercury in polar regions’
Research Scientist George Zittis – ‘Climate change in the Mediterranean: Emerging risks and sustainable adaptation pathways’
Associate Research Scientist Maria Kezoudi – ‘Advancing UAS-Based Monitoring of Stack Emission of Air Pollutants’
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Rimal Abeed – ‘Understanding NOx emission changes from 2019 to 2021 in the EMME region through variational inversions and satellite data’
PhD student/Graduate Research Fellow Anna Zenonos – ‘An AI-driven multi-source remote sensing framework for forest structure, biomass, and carbon monitoring’
PhD student/Graduate Research Fellow Anna Zenonos – ‘Spatial Resolution Enhancement of Geostationary Thermal Observations for Wildfire Monitoring’
PhD student/Graduate Research Fellow Andreas Karpasitis – ‘Linking upper-tropospheric dynamics to precipitation changes and extremes in the MENA region: insights from idealized experiments’
PhD Student / Graduate Research Fellow Semontee Deb – ‘Evaluation of WRF-Chem aeolian dust emission and land surface models over the dust belt’
PhD Student / Graduate Research Fellow Eleni Kolintsiki – ‘AERŌTAPE®: a novel technology for real-time quantification and characterization of dust and its sources’
PhD Student / Graduate Research Fellow Kenneth Tschorn – ‘UAV observations to reveal new insights into dust particle morphology and orientation’

Session Conveners and Co-Conveners:

CARE-C Director Professor Jean Sciare – Convener: ‘Advancing Environmental Sciences with Innovation and Research Infrastructures’
Professor Mihalis Vrekoussis – Co-convener: ‘Atmospheric Science for Action: Connecting Atmospheric Responses to Emissions, Air Quality, Climate, Health, and Environmental Justice to Motivate Policy’
Adjunct Associate Professor Andrea Pozzer – Co-convener: ‘Air Pollution Modelling’
Adjunct Associate Professor Andrea Pozzer – Co-convener: ‘Atmospheric composition variability and trends’
Research Scientist George Zittis – Co-convener: ‘Subtropical weather and climate processes in the past, present, and future’
Managing Coordinator Marina Papageorgiou – Co-convener: ‘Advancing Environmental Sciences with Innovation and Research Infrastructures’