Projekt badawczy

The joint Polish Lithuanian research effort by expert teams in remote sensing at University of Warsaw (UW) and in-situ observations at State Research Institute Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC) with an aim at assessing the importance of local versus long-range transported biomass burning aerosol on smog conditions in urban environment.

Measurements in two cities characterized by distinctly different urban air-pollution conditions (Warsaw vs Vilnius) are conducted with the same set of instruments: modern in-situ sensors (aethalometer and nephelometer), sun-photometers (AERONET/ACTRIS), and new generation complex lidar systems (operated at University of Warsaw in the frame of EARLINET/ACTRIS - PollyXT lidar and ESA ground based support - EMORAL lidar). Observations are taken both during dedicated IOPs (winter smog vs summer photo-smog) and during long-term study (covering at least one year of continuous 24/7 data provision). For multifactorial analyses, well known modern methods (some of them developed by the Partners of this proposal) are used in a combination with other data sources (satellite MODIS and SEVIRI observations), air-mass transport models (HySPLIT) and air-quality/aerosol models (NAAPS,CAMS).

The project is a follow up activity of a pilot study performed on voluntary basis by UW anmd FTMC in summer 2019, that demonstrated a need for further collaboration. The project helps us to maintain and tighten our joint research activities. The results of project are relevant and  have potential to be then directly used for scientific discoveries in radiative forcing field. Moreover, they have a high societal impact as they are directly related to air-quality.