The objective of the infrastructure is to enhance excellence in Earth system observation and research by providing information and knowledge to develop sustainable solutions tailored to society's needs.
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is one of the Spanish organisations participating in ACTRIS, a scientific facility recently established by the European Commission as the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) to provide state-of-the-art atmospheric research data and services to support science-based policy making.
ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace gases Research Infrastructure) enables scientists worldwide to study short-lived atmospheric constituents (aerosols, clouds and reactive trace gases, highly variable in space and time) and their interactions, enabling reliable atmospheric predictions ranging from short-term weather and health alerts to long-term assessment of climate change.
The objective of the infrastructure is to enhance excellence in Earth system observation and research by providing information and knowledge to develop sustainable solutions tailored to society's needs.
ACTRIS facilities, spread over more than 80 platforms in Europe and beyond, constitute the world's largest distributed atmospheric research infrastructure, providing its users with key information on the state of the atmosphere, open access to instruments, expertise, training opportunities, data management services and scientific knowledge to support environmental policy making. Each year, more than 5,000 users in 50 countries around the world use ACTRIS data for their research.
On the BSC's contribution to the project, ICREA and AXA professor and leader of the center's Atmospheric Composition group, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, explains: " BSC participates in the ACTRIS Data Centre Core Facility by providing prediction data on Saharan dust intrusions and contributing to the incorporation of data from prediction models and model evaluation."
Spanish organisations participating in ACTRIS ERIC
Through the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain participates in ACTRIS with eleven research organisations, which are grouped in a Joint Research Unit, comprising, in addition to the BSC, the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET), the University of Granada, the Fundación de la Comunitat Valenciana Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo (CEAM), the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), the University of Valladolid, the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, the Universitat de València and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.