Aerosol particles in the atmosphere

The group originally studied ozone and UV. But through the links betweeen the intensity of UV radiation and the aersol load of the atmosphere also this topic is now studied.

A first study during ESAC-II derived the aerosol optical depth from the direct sun observations with the Brewer spectrophotometer.

This work was further elaborated in the project AERO that further develped the technique and validated the results.

We participated in the aerosol subgroup of the GEMS project. The task of our institute was to carry out validation of the output of the aerosol module of the ECMWF atmospheric model.

Currently we are working on the  BELATMOS project, which aims to establish long-term aerosol monitoring in the remote site of the new Belgian Antarctic Base Princess Elisabeth Station.