AEROMOST – Improving Atmospheric Aerosol Monitoring at Continental Scale through the Synergy of Passive and Active Remote Sensing Techniques
- Reference: ProExcel 00204
- Funding agency: Junta de Andalucía
- Principal Investigator: Francisco Navas Guzmán (University of Granada)
- Project period: 02/12/2022 – 31/12/2025
- Total budget: 142,025.00 €
Project description
Atmospheric aerosols play a crucial role in the Earth’s climate system through aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions and are also a major contributor to air quality degradation, with direct impacts on human health. Despite their importance, the lack of vertically resolved aerosol observations with high spatial and temporal resolution over large regions remains one of the largest sources of uncertainty in estimates of the global radiative budget, as highlighted in the latest IPCC reports.
AEROMOST addresses this challenge by developing innovative strategies to monitor the four-dimensional (space and time) distribution of aerosol optical and microphysical properties at continental to global scales. While multi-wavelength Raman lidars provide highly accurate vertical aerosol profiles, their high operational costs and limited spatial coverage restrict their use in dense monitoring networks.
The project exploits recent advances in ceilometer technology and calibration techniques, enabling the establishment of dense, continuously operating ground-based networks capable of aerosol profiling. AEROMOST develops an integrated system that synergistically combines column-integrated aerosol properties from sun/sky photometers with vertically resolved measurements from ground-based lidars and ceilometers. These observations are assimilated using the GRASP inversion algorithm to retrieve near-real-time, vertically resolved and columnar aerosol properties.
Two complementary approaches are implemented. The first combines measurements from the AERONET sun/sky photometer network and the E-PROFILE ceilometer network, enabling the densest retrieval of aerosol vertical properties across Europe. The second approach integrates AERONET observations with aerosol profiles from the ATLID lidar onboard the EarthCARE satellite, providing a truly global aerosol monitoring capability while supporting the validation and enhancement of EarthCARE aerosol products.
Comprehensive evaluation of the retrieved aerosol products is carried out through comparisons with independent observations from advanced Raman lidars and alternative inversion techniques. In addition, intensive field campaigns at the Granada supersite (Spain) support the detailed characterization of aerosol properties and the validation of the proposed methodologies.
Expected impact
AEROMOST delivers an unprecedented aerosol dataset in Europe in terms of spatial and temporal coverage, significantly improving the representation of aerosol processes in climate and air quality models. By combining ground-based and satellite remote sensing observations at continental scale, the project introduces a novel observational framework for aerosol profiling never previously implemented.
The project directly contributes to the “Climate Action” challenge of the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation and supports European and international atmospheric research initiatives. The advanced aerosol products generated by AEROMOST will inform policy decisions related to climate change mitigation, air quality management, public health, aviation safety, and early warning systems.
Furthermore, AEROMOST strengthens the role of the AGORA observatory in Granada as a key validation site for satellite missions and international observing systems. The project enhances scientific exchange with modeling, satellite retrieval, and forecasting communities and supports the development and validation of next-generation atmospheric composition models. Overall, AEROMOST represents a significant step forward in building integrated, high-quality observing systems essential for advancing atmospheric science and supporting European environmental policies.
EarthCARE mission