Ozone, UV and Aerosol studies

Agriculture is responsible for more than 10 % of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the EU. The quantification of the GHG surface-atmosphere exchanges is crucial to decide which agrosystems and which practices should be privileged in the context of reducing our environmental footprint. To date, these exchanges are monitored using flux towers, organized in the global FLUXNET database. However, a longstanding issue of FLUXNET is the systematic underestimation of gas fluxes for specific atmospheric conditions, as information on the sub-mesoscale transport processes generated by surface heterogeneity is not directly available. We aim at solving this issue by exploiting recent advances in instrumentation and data assimilation. The objective is to provide correction procedures to improve the assessment of the GHG budgets performed over the different types of agrosystems. First of all, nowadays LIDAR systems allow for fine velocity measurements of the atmospheric surface layer. Moreover, versatile drone systems are emerging that can carry temperature and CO2 concentration probes to acquire spatially-distributed measurements. Secondly, turbulence-resolving microscale data-assimilation methods of flow and flux measurements have been proposed recently. The AGROFLUX project combines these aspects and adds elements of drone design and optimal flight planning to develop the next generation flux reconstruction method at the microscale level. The project will develop and validate these new methodologies using an extensive measurement campaign at the FLUXNET/ICOS-ESFRI site in Lonzée.

more information on the website of BELSPO.