Research Station Melpitz. Source: Tilo Arnhold, TROPOS
The German Contribution to the European Research Infrastructure ACTRIS
- Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research InfraStructure -
Objective
ACTRIS is the European research infrastructure for short-lived atmospheric constituents: Aerosols, reactive trace gases and clouds.
As part of the Earth Observing System, ACTRIS provides relevant measurement data and expertise to contribute to the development of sustainable solutions to societal issues.
Currently, this mainly concerns the topics of air quality and climate change.
Range of Services
ACTRIS provides open data on the spatiotemporal distribution of aerosols, reactive trace gases, and clouds. These are used to determine long-term trends, but also to study processes controlling the life cycles of these short-lived atmospheric constituents.
In addition, ACTRIS offers services in the form of training, consulting, or access to measurement stations, mobile platforms, simulation chambers, and calibration centers. These services are aimed not only at scientific users but also at companies, authorities and political decision-makers.
Organisation
ACTRIS is a distributed research infrastructure that has taken the legal form of an ERIC.
Currently, more than 100 institutes participate, anchored in 22 European countries.
On the European level, there are central institutions such as the main office, the data center or the six thematic centers, which are also calibration centers.
On the national level there are the national facilities, which collect the measurement data and provide a large part of the services for users.
German Central Facilities
German National Facilities
ACTRIS is part of the ENVRI network of the European Environmental Research Infrastructures.