Assessment of the impact of NO2 contribution on aerosol-optical-depth measurements at several sites worldwide
This work aims at investigating the effect of NO2 absorption on aerosol-optical-depth (AOD) measurements and Ångström exponent (AE) retrievals of sun photometers by the synergistic use of accurate NO2 characterization for optical-depth estimation from co-located ground-based measurements. The analysis was performed for ∼ 7 years (2017–2023) at several sites worldwide for the AOD measurements and AE retrievals by Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun photometers which use OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) climatology for NO2 representation. The differences in AOD and AE retrievals by NO2 absorption are accounted for using high-frequency columnar NO2 measurements...
BAQUNIN AERONET and Skynet retrievals comparison presented at EMS 2024
Monica Campanelli presented a comparison between AERONET and Skynet retrievals collected in BAQUNIN APL at European Meteorological Society (EMS 2024) conference held in Barcelona (Spain), 2-6 September 2024. Below the abstract of the work presented at the conference. In this contribution, the aerosol optical depth (AOD), the single scattering albedo (SSA) and the refractive index (RI) simultaneously retrieved by measurements from a SKYNET PREDE Sun/Moon photometer (Nakajima et al., 2020) and an AERONET/PHOTONS CIMEL sunphotometer (Giles et al., 2019) in...
Investigating the effects of the greenery increase on air temperature, ventilation and cooling energy demand in Melbourne with the Weather Research and Forecasting model and Local Climate Zones
Vegetation has a well-known potential for mitigating urban overheating. This work aims to explore the effects of enhancing urban greenery in Melbourne (Australia) through a configuration of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model including the Building Effect Parameterization and the Local Climate Zones and presents novelties in: i) covering two-months and ii) focusing on air circulation and buildings cooling energy demand through the ventilation coefficient (VC) and the cooling degree hours (CDHs). A control case and two “what-if”...
Evaluation of on-site calibration procedures for SKYNET Prede POM sun–sky photometers
To retrieve columnar intensive aerosol properties from sun–sky photometers, both irradiance and radiance calibration factors are needed. For the irradiance the solar calibration constant, V0, which denotes the instrument counts for a direct normal solar flux extrapolated to the top of the atmosphere, must be determined. The solid view angle, SVA, is a measure of the field of view of the instrument, and it is important for obtaining the radiance from sky diffuse irradiance measurements. Each of the three sun-photometer...
EM27 Greenhouse Gases measurements available!
Trace gases concentrations obtained through Bruker EM27/SUN solar absorption FTIR spectrometer are now available for download in the Products page. EM27 is an infrared spectrometer able to measure greenhouse gases concentration in atmosphere; it is hosted at APL and operated manually by BAQUNIN team. The products are in netcdf format following the GEOMS guidelines and contain information about water vapor, CO2, methane and CO total column and mixing ratio. Some weekly time series measured by EM27 are reported in the picture.
GMM 2024
The GMM (Giornata Mondiale della Meteorologia) 2024 will be held in Sapienza (Rome) on 23rd March 2024. Prof. Anna Maria Siani is one of the organizers and a member of the BAQUNIN team. This year's edition is focused on the Climate Change and with the participation of climate experts and high school students.
Winter warm spells over Italy: Spatial–temporal variation and large-scale atmospheric circulation
One of the worst side effects of climate change, linked to rising temperatures, is the increased frequency of unusual periods with high temperatures, namely heatwaves, throughout the year. During winter, heat waves give rise to the so-called winter warm spells (WWS), that is, periods characterized by several days of very warm temperatures compared with climatological values.In this study, just published on the International Journal of Climatology, the WWS that occurred in central Mediterranean over the period 1993–2022 were analyzed, examining the...
Skynet Moon measurements presented at the Lunar Calibration Workshop
Monica Campanelli presented the Skynet Network at the Fourth Joint GSICS/IVOS Lunar Calibration Workshop in Darmstadt, Germany (4-8 December 2023) with a very appreciated oral talk. Skynet is a network of PREDE POM photometers located in more than 100 sites worldwide; usually these instruments work observing the interaction of solar light with the atmosphere, but recently some of them have been updated to employs lunar light for their measurements. BAQUNIN hosts a Lunar POM at APL and at CNR-ISAC. In the...