Secondment of ESR4 at CIMEL in Paris
I spent the past two weeks (16-28 March) in France, where I was seconded for training related to my topic. My stay there fulfilled the purpose of exploring both practical and theoretical aspects of the sun photometer and the synergy with lidars.
The first week of my stay was dedicated to CIMEL company in Paris. This was a good opportunity to see a different environment, other than the educational institutes I am used to, i.e. the world of Industry. It was really interesting to speak with people involved in several projects and explore how all this knowledge – the “know how” as they say – unravels to practically produce very advanced machines; I was actually shown what is inside a sun photometer, part of its assemblage, and a bit of the work of software engineering regarding its settings (graphical environment and measurement scenarios). Second, I was given the chance for some hands-on training (mounting, setting, measuring) in the latest sun photometer model, which is not yet commercially available! At the same time I realized the huge potential of these passive instruments regarding aerosol classification and their contribution for the microphysical properties which is the link to my work. Moreover, I was shown one of CIMEL latest projects on micro-lidars, which is an ongoing work and targets to improve portability and eye safety for lidar community.
Secondment of ESR12 at the University of Hertfordshire (UK)
From March 17th till 28th, I (Athina Argyrouli) was hosted at the University of Hertfordshire under the supervision of Dr. Detlef Müller. The major goal of this two-week secondment was to get training on the inversion algorithm for retrieving aerosol microphysical properties by using optical data from a Raman lidar (with 3β+2α capabilities). During the first week of my stay, I got familiar with a training version of the software. I received training in how to retrieve volume concentration, number concentration, surface-area concentration, effective radius and the complex refractive index of aerosols with using synthetic optical data. That was basically the first step to understand whether a mathematical solution retrieved through the inversion is also acceptable from the physical point-of-view. The idea of using simulated data gave me an overview of the discrepancy which can be introduced to the solution of an ill-posed problem because of instability reasons. During this first week, Dr. Müller offered me some face-to-face sessions about the fundamentals behind the inversion process with respect Mie scattering theory.
ITaRS fellows participation at ACTRIS winter school
by Robert Banks and Lev Labzovsky
Two ITaRS fellows, Robert Banks and Lev Labzovsky, attended the 2014 ACTRIS Winter School on Advanced Analysis of Atmospheric Processes and Feedbacks and Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions, hosted by the Division of Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Helsinki. The intensive two-week course took place from 10-21 March, 2014 at the Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station in Southern Finland. Course topics were related to ACTRIS work packages 2-6 and 20-22. Relevant topics to the fellows included remote sensing of vertical aerosol distribution, clouds and aerosol quality-controlled observations, and the synergies between lidar and sun photometer.
ITaRS goes YouTube
by Maria Barrera Verdejo, Claudia Acquistapace, Xinxin Li and Nils Küchler
The participants of the ITaRS Summer School in Bucharest have produced four short movies to explain their science to a general public: