ATMO ACCESS

The puy de Dôme station (PUY, 45.77°N, 2.96°E, 1465m a.s.l.) hosts a large number of instruments for the long term in-situ monitoring of meteorological parameters, atmospheric reactive and greenhouse gases as well as physical, optical and chemical properties of aerosol particles. This station is also recognized as a unique site for collecting and studying clouds in natural conditions (microphysics, chemistry and biology). It is in addition equipped with a wind tunnel allowing for probe testing in natural icing conditions during winter.

The PUY station is completed by companion sites located 10 to 15 km apart:

·      Opme (45.71°N, 3.09°E, 660 m a.s.l.) site equipped with an upper tropospheric wind profiler, and instruments for rain and meteorological measurements,

·      Cézeaux (45.76°N, 3.11°E, 410 m a.s.l.) site equipped with a multi-wavelength lidar, meteorological and radiative measurements and a meteorological radio-sounding reception device,

·      Aulnat (45.79°N, 3.15°E, 330 m a.s.l.) site equipped with a lower tropospheric wind profiler.

This refers to the so-called CO-PDD (Cézeaux-Aulnat-Opme-puy de Dôme, https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/13/3413/2020/) instrumented platform for atmospheric research where 70 atmospheric variables are currently measured and in free access through the national AERIS datacenter. This rare/unique configuration of 4 measurement sites at different altitudes offers opportunities for the investigation of the atmospheric properties, including the vertical dimension.

The Atmo-Access TNA programme offers the opportunity of funding access to this unique platform for your own projects and also for the participation in a measurement campaign planned in 2024 for Investigating the atmospheric biological content in a multiphasic environment.

The atmospheric organic matter is complex and multiphasic. There are many challenges in characterizing this component in the atmosphere because:

·      the chemical speciation is difficult to evaluate because of the molecular diversity.

·     there is a real need to measure the different components at the same time to evaluate how these compounds partition and react in these different phases.

A significant fraction of the atmospheric organic matter is the result of surface biological activity that emits into the atmosphere a large diversity of molecules in the form of gases and particles. A fraction of these aerosols can also be living as bioaerosols that can enter the cloud medium. Even if organic compounds from biological origin are ubiquitous in the atmosphere, they remain poorly characterized. We propose to implement a measurement campaign at PUY in April 2024 to address these issues. This campaign is open to any researcher or team (European or non-European) with expertise in this field who is interested in applying for a physical or remote access.

For more information about the campaign, contact Laurent Deguillaume (laurent.deguillaume@uca.fr) and Evelyn Freney (evelyn.freney@uca.fr).

For more information about the facility, contact Jean-Luc Baray (j.l.baray@opgc.fr) and Clémence Rose (c.rose@opgc.fr).

In order to participate in this campaign two application procedures are possible:

• through the current call for REMOTE access (open until May 2nd 2023 at: https://www.atmo-access.eu/a-chance-to-remotely-access-the-most-advanced-atmospheric-research-facilities-in-europe/);
• through the next call for general access (for physical presence on-site), which will open from June to August 2023.