Last week, the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the CAS in Prague hosted a visit by Swiss partners, attended by representatives of the National Coordination Unit, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, and other collaborating organizations. The main item on the agenda was the presentation of the project “SACA-ACTRIS – State of the Art Characterization of Atmosphere: Aerosols and Reactive Trace Gases” which is being implemented by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. The program also included a guided tour of the laboratories and the outdoor measuring station.

Project „SACA-ACTRIS – State of the Art Characterization of Atmosphere: Aerosols and Reactive Trace Gases“ is supported through a financial allocation of CZK 42,965,000 under the Swiss-Czech Cooperation Programme in the area of research infrastructures. The project builds on the activities of the European research infrastructure ACTRIS ERIC, of which the Czech Republic is also a founding member.

Air pollution remains a major environmental, health, and economic challenge in Europe. Particulate matter, black carbon, and volatile organic compounds affect human health, climate, ecosystems, quality of life, and economic productivity. This is why there is a growing need for faster, more accurate, and harmonized methods for identifying pollution sources and assessing their impacts.

The project aims to advance measurement techniques, data processing, and the transfer of know-how between the national nodes of ACTRIS ERIC in Switzerland and the Czech Republic. It focuses on modern methods for measuring aerosols and trace gases, near real-time identification of air pollution sources, and the measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). An important part of the project is also ensuring the high quality and comparability of the measured data.

Key objectives

• transfer of know-how in inverse modelling and polarimetry (IMAP) and its implementation in the Czech Republic;
• identification of sources of aerosol particles through receptor modelling of near real-time online measurements;
• assessment of the impact of aerosol particle sources on oxidative potential and human health;
• development of high-spatial-resolution black carbon (BC) exposure maps;
• characterization of biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs);
• strengthening QA/QC methods for VOC measurements, spectral interpretation, and data quality harmonization.

ACTRIS-CZ - Large Research Infrastructure

The ACTRIS-CZ large research infrastructure includes the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the RECETOX centre at Masaryk University.

The objective of the infrastructure is the long-term research of aerosols, clouds, and trace gases, as well as their impacts on climate, air quality, and human health.

Project´s partners

• Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, Empa
• Paul Scherrer Institute, PSI
• Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the CAS, ICPF
• Global Change Research Institute of the CAS, GCRI

More information: https://actris.cz/web/