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Atmospheric Composition Change Posts

Call for ACCENT Infrastructures is permamently open

The call for infrastructures is permamently open.

A number of research infrastructures (research aircraft, laboratory facilities, advanced analytical instrumentation and/or monitoring stations) are currently operational in Europe for atmospheric studies. New methodologies for the investigation of atmospheric mechanisms, generation of original and high quality data for modelling purposes have emphasised the need for advanced facilities over Europe. Except for a few co-ordinated international projects or already established European large-scale facilities, there is a clear lack of a co-ordination programme that would permit and simplify the access of all scientists to any research facilities within an extended European research area. For that purpose, a co-ordinated effort to establish a large-scale synergy allowing access to research infrastructures, diffusion of information and use of generated databases from a certain number of facilities would be extremely beneficial.

Click here to read more!

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New EDGAR data on greenhouse gas emission by country and on grid

Announcement of EDGAR v4.0 release: new version with greenhouse gas emissions 1970-2005

We are pleased to inform you that the EDGAR v4.0 greenhouse gas emissions dataset is now available for download at the new EDGAR website hosted by JRC.
EDGAR v4.0 provides insight in annual emissions of greenhouse gas emissions by country, world region, sectors, and on spatial grid in the period 1970-2005.

EDGAR v4.0 greenhouse gas emissions
The current release contains the following greenhouse gases: Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC-23, 32, 125, 134a, 143a, 152a, 227ea, 236fa, 245fa, 365mfc, 43-10-mee), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs: CF4, C2F6, C3F8, c-C4F8, C4F10, C5F12, C6F14, C7F16), and Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6). http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/overview.php

The following data are available for download (after registration)
1. Country emissions: http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/datasets_list.php
– Time series (1970-2005) with total annual emissions by world region and country
– Annual emissions by country and standard sectors (using the IPCC source category definitions)

2. Annual gridded emission in 3 different spatial resolutions: http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/datasets_grid_list.php
– 0.1 x 0.1 degree
– 0.5 x 0.5 degree
– 1.0 x 1.0 degree

EDGAR v4.0 forthcoming data
Other datasets are in preparation for the non-Kyoto greenhouse gases, Ozone Depleting substances, Ozone precursor gases, Primary particulates (PM10, PM2.5) and Primary Aerosols (BC, OC).
You will be informed in due time by e-mail or by checking the new EDGAR website http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/overview.php

Announcement of EDGAR users meeting:
On Tuesday and Wednesday 24-25 November 2009, an EDGAR users meeting will be organized at the JRC in Ispra, Italy. The aim of these 2 days is to exchange information between users and the EDGAR team. EDGAR users will be given the opportunity to present modeling and policy studies using EDGAR data, followed by presentations on the development of EDGAR v4.0 and discussion on issues, improvements, collaborations etc. More information will follow in the coming months.

Feedback from users: welcome!
We encourage users of the new EDGAR v4.0 data to provide feedback on the quality of the dataset.

About the EDGAR project
The current development of EDGAR is a joint project of the European Commission JRC Joint Research Centre and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL: http://www.pbl.nl/en/index.html)

For more information about the project please visit the new website http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ , containing information about methodology (incl. differences with earlier datasets), project members, download of country and grid data.
Older EDGAR datasets are available from http://www.pbl.nl/edgar/ , in due time these datasets will be archived on the new website.

EDGAR project team:
John van Aardenne (JRC, project leader), Suvi Monni (JRC), Jos Olivier (PBL), Ulrike Doering (JRC), Lorenzo Orlandini (JRC), Valerio Pagliari (JRC), Jeroen Peters (PBL), Fulgencio Sanmartin (JRC), Greet Maenhout (JRC).

Contact information: edgar-info@jrc.ec.europa.eu

European Commission – JRC Joint Research Centre, IES Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Climate Change Unit, TP 290, I-21020, Ispra (Va), Italy

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GEIA/ACCENT conference on emissions

The GEIA/ACCENT Conference on emissions will take place in Olso (Norway) on October 26-28, 2009.
Information on the preliminary program, abstract submission, financial support and registration are available on the GEIA wesite: http://geiacenter.org.

The deadline for abstracts submission is July, 1st 2009

The deadline for application for financial support is July, 1st 2009

The goal of the conference is to review progress in quantifying emissions of gases and aerosols and their uncertainties: presentations will focus on recent improvements in understanding emissions and using them in chemistry-transport, climate-chemistry and earth-system models. Past and future anthropogenic emissions, biomass burning and natural emissions will be considered, at both regional and global scales. The use of observations in the determination and evaluation of emissions and their trends will be reviewed. It is expected that the discussions, encouraged throughout the conference, will help improve the interface between emission datasets and atmospheric models. Emerging issues in the determination of emissions and their uncertainties will also be addressed.

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Pilot on “Next Generation Summit”

The major objectives of the Pilot were (i) to plan on an event to be jointly organised between air quality and climate scientists, and impact specialists, and (ii) to develop web-based training material on the issue for the “ACCENT Virtual Knowlede Train”. An outreach activity (Café Scientifique) for the media, and an excursion to the Jungfraujoch research laboratory (3,580 m asl) complemented the programme.

Both ACCENT and ENSEMBLES scientists (from Europe / the USA) participated in the activity (download programme). Master students from Switzerland (University of Berne / ETH Zürich) assisted in the testing of the training material and provided valuable feed-back.

The event was organised by the University of Berne, Switzerland (Evi Schuepbach, ACCENT T&E Coordinator), and was linked to the Graduate School of Climate Sciences at Berne University (Master of Science in Climate Sciences Programme, Course No. S7453: Atmospheric Chemistry-Climate Links).

ACCENT T&E wishes to acknowledge the support offered from both Jungfraubahn AG, Interlaken, Switzerland and the International Foundation High Altitude Observatories Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat, at the University of Berne, Switzerland. We especially would like to thank Prof. Erwin Flückiger, Mrs Louise Wilson (both at Berne University), and Mr Felix and Mrs Susanne Seiler (at Jungfraujoch). We also appreciate the kindness of Mr Willi Seiler and Mr Wyss from Jungfraubahn AG, and of Mr Zumbrunn and Mrs Kaufmann (Gletscherrestaurant Jungfraujoch).

All teaching material and the report can be downloaded here.

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ACCENT Mentoring Programme

“Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.”
Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring

The ACCENT Mentoring Programme is carried out jointly with the EU project ENSEMBLES, other EU projects will join. The first Mentor-Mentee pairs have successfully carried out or completed a mentoring process.

ACCENT T&E encourages you to become involved in this exciting opportunity as a Mentor or Mentee. Letters of intent (download here) should be sent to the ACCENT T&E Coordinator (Dr Evi Schuepbach; cabo@giub.unibe.ch).

ACCENT T&E recommends that Mentor-Mentee pairs discuss and agree on the goals to be achieved and sign a small contract (download here). The issue that the Mentee wishes to tackle with the Mentor is confidential. The mentoring period can run for a year or less. Mentoring can be carried out by email (if both parties agree), internet phone, or with face-to-face meetings. The mentoring period can run for a year or less; contacts are recommended to take place on a monthly basis.

The ACCENT Mentoring Programme is administered by the Task “Training & Education” and supported by the Gender Awareness Group.

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Interactive Learning Tools in Chinese
The Chinese translations of the e-learning environment on global change mark the beginning of a new post-ACCENT era on global learning in air quality and climate change science with activities starting in 2010.

Further reading:
E. Schuepbach (Ed.), 2009, We Care for Clean Air! Motivating the Next Generation of Atmospheric Scientists, 94 p, ISBN 978-88-95665-01-6.

E. Uherek, E. Schuepbach, 2008, European Efforts in Earth Science and Climate Change Education, Physical Geography, 2008, 29, 6, 545-560.

Awareness Seminar in Bangalore, India
Both, general science education issues and local/regional needs were addressed. The overview presentation by E. Schuepbach on teaching material developed in ACCENT “Training and Education” was well received. The Seminar ended with a media conference, and a newspaper article was released the following day, stressing the importance of environmental awareness and the importance of education.

Download the newspaper article here.

Download the presentation given by E. Schuepbach here.

Download the Seminar report here here.

ACCENT Training Workshop in Guangzhou, China

An ACCENT T&E Workshop was held at Sun Yat-Sen (Zhongshan) University, Guangzhou, China, from 22-27 July 2009. The Workshop was integrated in a Summer School on Biodiversity organized by Prof. Shixiao YU, School of Life Sciences, Dept. of Ecology, funded by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The ACCENT Workshop on “Changing Paradigms in Atmospheric Chemistry” focused on primary and secondary pollutants with respect to health and policy issues. It offered lectures and group work in both science and transferable skills including team building and leadership, interdisciplinary disagreement, media analysis, and science communication to non-scientists. About 150 postgraduate students from 40 Universities in China participated in the ACCENT Workshop that carried the sub-title “Learning about the Past for Leaders of the Future”. Lectures were given and group work was chaired by 6 European ACCENT scientists. About 10 policy makers from China were invited to a V.I.P. event on “Science to Policy” in the late afternoon-evening of 25 July 2009 in Dongguan city to exchange with early-career scientists who were selected among the 150 participating students on the basis of their leadership potential, innovation and creativity. Click here to download full programme, workshop report and lectures .

ACCENT Training Workshop in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
The Training Workshop on “Changing Paradigms in Atmospheric and Marine Chemistry”, held from 7-11 August 2009 in southern Taiwan, at the National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, was affected by Typhoon Morakot, which devastated southern Taiwan in the region of Kaohsiung over the weekend of the ACCENT event. Fortunately, Peter Brimblecombe (University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K.) had moved the Friday presentations forward to Thursday, 6 August, and Eva Schuepbach (University of Berne, Switzerland) managed to get to Kaohsiung from Hong Kong late on Sunday, 9 August, despite many cancelled flights.

Click here to download the Workshop programme, a summary on experiences and outcomes of the Workshop, and the lectures.

ACCENT FAR EAST – Simply Amazing
Videos

Videos on the Summer School on Biodiversity and on the ACCENT Workshop in Guangzhou have been produced by students from Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. Click here to view video on Welcome, Workshop and Farewell.

Pictures
Click here to visit the Picture Gallery of the ACCENT FAR EAST Summer Programme 2009.

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ACCENT Symposium – Presentations now available!!

ACCENT is pleased to announce that the presentations of its Symposium “Air Pollution – Climate Interactions. Contribution to European Policy Development” hosted by the European Commission, Directorate General for Research, in Brussels, 3-4 November 2009, are now available.

Click on the speakers name to download the pdf file of the presentation.

This Symposium brought together leading scientists in the field from Europe and the rest of the world and counted on the participation of high level representatives from the European Commission, EU Member States and International organisations. During the Symposium, the work accomplished in this field within relevant projects supported by the European Commission RTD Framework Program has been presented and debated. The Symposium aimed at contributing to the dialogue between science and policy and to provide the scientific basis to the policy making process in the fields of air quality and climate change.

We would like to underline the importance of this debate in this particular moment, when on one side most of EU Member States face difficulties to meet the requirements of EU Air Quality Directives and on the other side, there is a very strong need to arrive to a successful worldwide strategy in the coming COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (December 2009). Therefore, particular attention has been given during the two days event to the interactions (synergies and trade-offs) between the two policy areas.

The final Symposium programme can be found here.

PRESENTATIONS

Opening Session
Perspectives and Strategies in EU Member States
Towards Copenhagen the Challenge of Limiting deltaT to ≤2ºC, Corrado Clini
Air Pollution-Climate Iteractions: Perspectives and Strategies in EU Member States – the UK

Keynote Presentations
EU Strategy on Air Quality and Climate Change, Philip Owen
Outcome of the Gothenburg Workshop on Air Pollution and Climate Change, Peringe Grennfelt
Climate and Air Quality Policies Interactions, Rob Maas
Science Contribution to IPCC assessments, Guy Brasseur

Session I – Climate Change
Atmospheric Composition Change and Climate, Ivar Isaksen
Transport Emissions and Climate, Keith Shine
Tropical Chemistry and Climate, Céline Mari
Lesson from the past, Bernhard Stauffer

Session II – Ecosystems
Atmospheric Composition Change and Ecosystems, David Fowler
Fertilising the Atmosphere, Jan Willem Erisman
Natural Aerosol Production: Marine and Terrestrial (forest), Colin O’Dowd
Natural Emissions of BVOCs, Francesco Loreto

Session III – Air Pollution
Atmospheric Composition Change: Global and Regional Air Quality, Paul Monks
Overview of CARIBIC for ACCENT, Carl Brenninkmeijer
H2 an Alternative Fuel, Cornelia Richter

Session IV – Observations and Measurements
Measuring Atmospheric Composition Changes, Paolo Laj
Observing the Atmosphere from the Ground, Gelsomina Pappalardo
Integrating Atmospheric Composition Observations: the GEOmon Contribution, Stephan Henne
Observing Tropospheric Composition from Space (the new frontier), John Burrows
In-situ Measurement and Emission Estimate of Halocarbon in china, Lingxi Zhou

Session V – Education in Air Quality and Climate Change Sciences
We Care for Clean Air!Motivating the Next Generation of Atmospheric Scientists, Eva Schuepbach
Education and Changing Paradigms within the Atmospheric Sciences, Peter Brimblecombe
Advance with the Global Community: Cyberspace Learning about Climate Change, Roberta Johnson

Synthesis: Future Policy Directions and Emerging Research Issues
The Evolving Science-Policy Dialogue, Frank Raes
Emerging Issues in Science, Sandro Fuzzi
Research Needs for EU Air Quality and Climate Change Policies, André Zuber

For additional information, please contact the ACCENT PROJECT OFFICE project.office@accent-network.org, ph 0039 0722 303316.

Sandro Fuzzi ACCENT Coordinator

Michela Maione ACCENT Executive Secretary

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2nd ACCENT Symposium – Proceeding Now Published

The Proceedings of the 2nd ACCENT Symposium “Atmospheric Composition Change. Causes and Consequences – Local to Global”, 23-27 July 2007, Urbino (Italy), has now been published.

The book includes 23 extended abstracts of Oral Presentations, divided into 5 thematic sections related to the atmospheric composition change: Ecosystem, Climate, Health, Air Quality and Measurements.

The book is published together with an editorial CD-Rom, including 90 extended abstract of Poster presentations.

Official Reference:

title: Atmospheric composition Change – Causes and Consequences – Local to Global
editors: Michela Maione, Sandro Fuzzi
publisher: Aracne editrice S.r.l.
ISBN: 978-88-548-2268-9
1st edition: January 2009

Report on Gender Issues in Scientific Careers

The report WORKING AS SCIENTISTS: GENDER PERCEPTION OF THE WORK-LIFE BALANCE. ACCENT NETWORK: A CASE STUDY, on gender issues in scientific careers, is an ACCENT initiative on gender awareness themes, which focuses on the perception of gender differences and the creation of conditions for gender equality in scientific careers, analysing the experience of ACCENT scientists.

The work consisted in the elaboration of data collected from the wide ACCENT community through the completion of a questionnaire, elaborated by Fatima Farina, from the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Urbino, and revised by Eva Schuepbach and Michela Maione, for the ACCENT Gender Awareness Group.

The collected data have been analysed by Fatima Farina and Domenico Carbone (University of Piemonte Orientale), resulting in this interesting report which, we hope, will be food for thought for both men and women.

The report is available here.

ACCENT Synthesis Now Published!!

The ACCENT Synthesis has now been published as a special issue of Atmospheric Environment and as an hard bound book

This comprehensive review of the present knowledge in the field of atmospheric composition change follows a problem-oriented approach describing the effects of the changes on climate, regional air quality and ecosystems. Recent advances in instrumentation and methodologies for measuring atmospheric composition change from space, aircraft and the surface, as well as novel laboratory techniques are also reviewed with an emphasis on innovative technologies that will become operational in the near future.
In addition, two further contributions discuss the issues of training of young scientists and the learning tools on atmospheric composition change for different school levels, and the interaction between science and society within the general theme of atmospheric sciences.

The volume 43, Issue 33, Atmospheric Environment, pages 5135-5442 (October 2009) is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/6055-2009-999569966-1528389

Please find here below the table of contents:
– Foreword, José Manuel Silva Rodríguez
– Editorial, S. Fuzzi, M. Maione
– Atmospheric composition change: climate–chemistry interactions, I.S.A. Isaksen et al.
– Atmospheric composition change: ecosystems–atmosphere interactions, D. Fowler et al.
– Atmospheric composition change: global and regional air quality, P.S. Monks et al.
– Measuring atmospheric composition change, P. Laj et al.
– Educating the next generation of atmospheric scientists within a European Network of Excellence, E. Schuepbach et al.
– Atmospheric composition change research: Time to go post-normal? Ângela Guimarães Pereira et al.
– Appendix: ACCENT, The account of a successful story: a short summary of the goals, organisation and achievements of the European Network of Excellence “Atmospheric Composition Change: the European Network”

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2nd ACCENT Symposium, Oral Presentations Now Available

ACCENT is pleased to announce that the oral presentations of its second international symposium are now available, here below. (click on the speakers’ name to download the ppt file)

The Symposium on the relevance of atmospheric composition change on important societal issues, such as climate, air quality, health and eco systems, took place in the beautiful renaissance town of Urbino, Italy 23-27 July 2007.

Oral Presentations

Session “Atmospheric Composition Change and Ecosystems”
• Land Atmosphere Exchange of Reactive Nitrogen, Ute Skiba (invited presentation)
• News on Organics from the Air-Sea Interface, Jonathan Williams (invited presentation)
• Marine Aerosol Chemical Fluxes and the Development of a Combined Inorganic-Organic Sea Spray Source Function, Darius Ceburnis

Session “Atmospheric Composition Change and Climate”
• Aerosol Direct and Indirect Effects on Climate Forcing, Johannes Quaas (invited presentation)
• Composition-Climate Interactions: Towards Climate Mitigation Strategies, Drew Shindell (invited presentation)
• Past, Present and Future Anthropogenic Aerosol: Atmospheric Feedbacks in Different Climate Conditions, Celine Deandreis
• The WCRP-SPARC/IGBP-IGAC Atmospheric Chemistry & Climate Initiative, Veronika Eyring

Session “Atmospheric Composition Change and Health”
• Policy Design to Reduce PM10 Long-Term Exposure: an Application over the Northern Italy Domain, Enrico Pisoni

Session “Training and Education”
• The Virtual Knowledge Train on Atmospheric Composition Change: oral presentation by Elmar Uherek

Session “Atmospheric Composition Change and Air Quality”
• Changes In Tropospheric Composition Over The Past 20 Years And Implications For The Global Air Quality, Isabelle Bey (invited presentation)
• Decadal Changes in European NOx Emissions Derived from Satellite Observations by Means of Inverse Modeling, Igor B. Konovalov

Session “Measuring Atmospheric Composition Change”
• Relationship of Aerosol Microphysical Properties and Chemical Composition with the Radiative Effect of Aerosol in Baltic Sea Region, Anna Pugatshova
• Single-Particle Experimental Studies of Mass Transfer in Aerosol Growth or Evaporation, Chris Homer
• Seasonal Variation of the Aerosol Size Distribution at High Altitude Research Stations in France and Nepal, Karine Sellegri
• 10 Years of Pyrogenic NMVOC Emissions Deduced From HCHO Satellite Data, Jenny Stavrakou
• Influence of Continental Emissions on Upper-Tropospheric Methanol as Revealed From Space, Gaëlle Dufour

Click here to view the symposium website

Click here to view the symposium programme

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