WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo together with the MeteoSwiss directorate visited the Jungfraujoch research station station. The research station hosts a range of atmospheric observations that are integrated in national networks (Swiss Alpine Climate Radiation Monitoring, SACRaM), international programs (Global Atmosphere Watch, GAW), and European research infrastructures (ICOS and ACTRIS).…
The ACTRIS General Assembly was held in Vienna, Austria this week and it included yet another major milestone for the research infrastructure: the appointment of Eija Juurola as the first ACTRIS ERIC Director General. You can read more about this appointment and the role of Director General on the ACTRIS…
The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Exporer) satellite was launched last night from California (USA). With four remote sensing instruments on board (an atmospheric LIDAR, a Doppler Cloud radar, a multi-spectral imager, and a broad-band radiometer), it has been designed to study the role of…
Last week the ACTRIS community met in Rennes, France for the ACTRIS Science Conference 2024. This was a special meeting for the community. It was the first conference since the ACTRIS ERIC was officially established in 2023, as well as the first ever in-person ACTRIS science meeting. ACTRIS-Switzerland was well…
It’s official. After receiving the approval of the ACTRIS General Assembly in November 2023, the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, World Radiation Center, Switzerland (PMOD-WRC) is now officially a new unit of the ACTRIS Center of Aerosol Remote Sensing (CARS). The main task of the CARS-PMOD-WRC unit is to link the ACTRIS/CARS…
The climate and environmental impacts of agriculture are complicated. A new study performed in Finland and led by Dr. Lubna Dada from the Paul Scherrer Institute has shown that vapours such as ammonia and amines emitted from farmland can go on to form new particles in the atmosphere much more…
A delegation of four scientists from CzechGlobe visited ACTRIS Switzerland for a training and exchange workshop this week. Empa and PSI provided the delegation insights into their various activities ranging from the long term observations of trace gases and aerosols to current developments in laser based measurements of trace gases…
The ACTRIS Science Conference 2024 will be held in Rennes, France from 13 to 16 May, 2024. The conference welcomes contributions that span the entire spectrum of ACTRIS scientific activities. The abstract submission process is open from now until 7 December, 2023. For further details check out the conference website.
If you were lucky enough to be hiking in the Swiss Alps last weekend you would have noticed the remarkably hazy air and reduced visibility. Fascinatingly, this was the result of a wildfire smoke plume that had traveled all the way from Canada before subsiding and settling over Switzerland. You…
In July and August 2023, two online ice nucleating particle (INP) instruments were running in parallel at the Jungfraujoch Research Station. This intercomparison exercise was an important step towards Jungfraujoch becoming a National Facility of the ACTRIS Topical Center for Cloud In Situ (CIS) Measurements. CIS aims to establish a…
