Aerosols
Two issues provide the impetus for much of the current research in the field of atmospheric aerosols: a) aerosol-cloud-climate issues; and b) the relationship between particulate matter and adverse human health effects. On the surface, these two issues may seem fairly different. Climate issues imply a global scale, whereas human health issues are often thought of as local phenomena. Health and climate issues have also generally been dealt with by different scientific communities. Issues of scale and scientific discipline have to a large extent served to maintain the separation between these topics, to the detriment of both. In reality, there is a good deal of common ground between these issues. There is an urgent need to develop co-ordinated research activities in a number of areas common to climate, air quality and health, such as:
* The influence of organic aerosols on cloud properties and processes, and on air quality and human health.
* Determine how pollution influences cloud radiative properties and life cycles and identifying and quantifying feedback loops in the natural aerosol/cloud/hydrological cycle.
* Determine the effects of mega-cities.
Research on these topics is being carried out both as part of both national and European programmes. This is not always the most efficient way of addressing these issues, since it can lead to fragmentation and duplication of effort. The activities within this subproject will be centred around the challenges of developing co-ordinated research strategies and programmes for the air quality, health and climate communities, linking the local, regional and global scales. More specifically, we aim to:
* determine specific issues related to aerosols and clouds that are common to the topics of climate, air quality and human health;
* determine the most pressing measurement and modelling needs in these areas and develop specific programmes for addressing them;
* devise joint measurement and modelling strategies that will produce information that is necessary and useful in all three areas;
* link with the horizontal activities within ACCENT to create a forum for information exchange between the air quality, health and climate communities with aerosols and clouds as a focus;
* compile and make available a summary of current nationally-funded research programmes in the areas of aerosols and clouds. Investigators interested in climate, air quality and health issues can make themselves aware of work going on in countries other than their own, and facilitate contact between researchers in Europe.
We propose to achieve these goals through two main types of activities:
* a series of focussed workshops aimed at producing plans for common research strategies that will involve the climate, air quality, health, measuring and modelling communities.
* A compilation of national research programmes in aerosols, clouds, air quality and climate. A subsequent aim will be to create a standardised forum for exchanging the results of national programmes in the form of a web "journal" for publishing and discussing the uses of the results from national research programmes.
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Goldschmidt Conference 2009 |
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Database Of Nationally Funded Aerosol And Cloud Research Programs |
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Workshop on Formation and Growth of Secondary Atmospheric Aerosols |
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Project coordinator: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. coordinator@accent-network.org Project Office: Università di Urbino. project.office@accent-network.org Web-coordinator: Norwegian Institute for Air Research. mail@accent-network.org ACCENT Disclaimer |