PROfiling the atmospheric Boundary layer at European scale (PROBE) (CA18235)

The atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is the layer closest to the Earth’s surface within which most human activities take place. The vertical profile of atmospheric thermodynamic parameters in the ABL impacts weather, air quality, and climate. Surface sensor networks and satellite observations do not provide sufficient information on the high temporal variability and strong vertical gradients experienced in the ABL. Thus, despite its importance, ABL remains the single most important under-sampled part of the atmosphere. This observational gap currently hampers our ability to improve weather forecasts, air quality prediction, and climate model parameterization. However, this gap is mainly due to the lack of S&T networking and coordination. In fact, state-of-the-art ground-based remote sensing instruments able to provide ABL profiles (such as temperature, humidity, wind, aerosol, cloud) are currently deployed at numerous sites in Europe, but the harmonization of data and procedures is missing, limiting the effective use and societal benefits of the existing ABL profiling data. This Action aims to fill this gap, bridging user needs and the S&T expertise residing in industry and academia. This will be achieved through:

• Capacity building of instrument operators to improve the use of state-of-the-art ABL profiling instruments
• Fostering coordination between operational agencies and academia to tailor measurement networks for well identified applications
• Enhancing pan-European research coordination to develop new products and tools for data assimilation and long time series reanalysis
• Identifying knowledge brokers enabling rapid exchange between academia, operational agencies, industry and end-users to ensure full exploitation for societal benefit.

Keywords:

atmospheric boundary layer, thermodynamic and wind profiling, aerosol and cloud profiling, remote sensing

Partners:

Institut of GeoSciences Energy Water and Environment, Albania
ZAMG-Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Austria
Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Belgium
Climate, Atmosphere and Water Research Institute at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (CAWRI-BAS), Bulgaria
Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia, Croatia
Drzavni Hidrometeoroloski Zavod, Croatia
The Cyprus Institute, Cyprus
Institute of Thermomechanics, CAS, Czech Republic
Department of Wind Energy, Denmark
University of Tartu, Estonia
Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonia
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
Ecole Polytechnique, France
Météo France, France
Am Observatorium 12, Germany
Universität zu Köln, Germany
University of Patras, Greece
Technical University of Crete, Greece
Hungarian Meteorological Service, Hungary
The Icelandic Meteorological Office, Iceland
National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG), Ireland
Leosphere, Ireland
IIBR, Israel
Istituto di metodologie per l’analisi ambientale (IMAA) – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy
Agenzia Regionale della Protezione dell’Ambiente – Valle d’Aosta, Italy
Lietuvos energetikos institutas, Lithuania
Kauno kolegija, Lithuania
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Insitute (KNMI), Netherlands
University of Warsaw, Poland
University of Evora, Portugal
Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
National Institute of R&D for Optoelectronics, Romania
Institute of Physics Belgrade, Serbia
Faculty of Sciences – University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, Slovakia
Slovenian Environment AgencyRemote sensing division, Slovenia
Universidad de Granada, Spain
Centre for meteorological measurement technology Payerne, Switzerland
Schweizerisches Forschungsinstitut für Hochgebirgsklima und Medizin, Switzerland
İstanbul Aydın University, Turkey
Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey
University of Reading, United Kingdom
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, United Kingdom