During the last week of February, the 7th GRUAN Implementation and Coordination Meeting (ICM-7) was held in Matera (Italy) and hosted by CNR-IMAA. GRUAN is the GCOS Reference Upper Air Network, an international reference observing network designed to meet climate requirements and to fill a major void in the current global observing system. Upper air observations within the GRUAN network will provide long-term high-quality climate records, that will be used to constrain and validate data from space based remote sensors, and will provide accurate data for the study of atmospheric processes.
Pilar Gumà-Claramunt (ESR3) had the opportunity to attend many interesting presentations and discussions regarding, for instance, the high-quality measurement standards and the different current activities at the GRUAN sites, as well as to meet several experts in the field. On Thursday 26th, all the participants had the opportunity to visit the CNR-IMAA Atmospheric Observatory, getting an overview of its activities and having the chance to see and get a short explanation on its instruments, part in which ESR3 participated actively.
The following week, on 2nd and 3rd March, the GAIA-CLIM Kick-Off meeting took place in Matera and was as well hosted by CNR-IMAA. GAIA-CLIM stands for Gap Analysis for Integrated Atmospheric ECV CLImate Monitoring and is a Horizon 2020 project. Its main aim is to lead to a step change of availability of, and ability to utilize, truly reference quality traceable measurements in support of satellite data characterisation. In order to achieve it, it brings together scientific, technical and leadership expertise in high-quality in-situ and sub-orbital observations, gap analyses, modelling, satellite operations and data assimilation It was very interesting to attend this meeting and its discussions to define the specific steps to follow in order to fulfil the objectives of the different Work Packages.