CTOTUS

CTOTUS is a project of the "Programma Operativo Regionale" (P.O.R.) of the Regione Toscana for the development of the "Competitività Regionale e Occupazione" (C.R.E.O.) with the Fondo Europeo per lo Sviluppo Regionale (FESR 2007-2013).

The acronym stands for "Capacità tecnologica e operativa della Toscana per l'Utilizzo dello Spazio" (technological and operative capacity of Tuscany for the exploitation of "space").

The Atmospheric Group partecipates at the CTOTUS project with three activities:

• Coordination and managment (Bruno Carli)
• Development of new instruments for the spectrally resolved measurement and monitoring of the Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) in the termal infra-red (Luca Palchetti)
• Study and assessment of radiative transfer models for the forward modelling and retrieval of geophysical parameters from passive remote sensing observations performed with different geometries in different spectral regions (Ugo Cortesi).

Further information on the project can be found in the CTOTUS web site (http://ctotus.ifac.cnr.it).

GOSAT

GOSAT (Greenhouse gases Oberving SATellite) is a project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) aimed at the first space-borne observations of the two major greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide and methane.

The Atmospheric Group is involved in a collaboration with the GOSAT team, contributing to two research themes in response to the Second GOSAT Research Announcement (link to http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/proposal/proposal.htm):

Further information on the GOSAT project can be found in the web site http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp.

SAFIRE-A (Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere by using Far InfraRed Emission - Airborne) is a high resolution far-infrared Fourier transform spectrometer designed and developed by IFAC-CNR and deployed onboard the high altitude research aircraft M-55 Geophysica for the investigation of upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric chemistry and transport.

Different national ann international projects supported the SAFIRE-A research activities:

SAFIRE-A (1993-1994) - Research project for the design and development of the instrument, supported by an international collaboration involving groups in Italy, France, UK and USA and funded by CEC Environmental and Climate Program (Contract N° E5V5-CT94-0359).

SAFIRE-A for APE (1996-1998) - Research project aimed at the optmisation and flight qualification of the SAFIRE-A instrument for the Airborne Polar Experiment. The project, coordinated by IFAC in collaboration with other groups in Italy, France, UK and USA, was funded by CEC Environmental and Climate Program, Framework IV (Contract N° ENV4-CT95-0045).

APE-POLECAT (1996-1997) - Measurement campaign for the investigation of microphysics and chemistry of Polar Stratospheric Clouds in the Arctic region (Rovaniemi, Finland).

APE-GAIA (1999) - Measurement campaign for the investigation of stratospheric chemistry and transport during the ozone depletion and recovery phases in the Antarctic region (Ushuaia, Argentina).

ENVISAT Validation (2002-2003) - Measurement campaigns for validation of the chemistry payload of the ENVISAT mission carried out at mid-latitude (Forlì, Italy) and in the Arctic region (Kiruna, Sweden).

The deployment and upgrading of the SAFIRE-A instrument was supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and by the Italian Programme for Antarctic Research (PNRA).

Further information on the SAFIRE-A programme can be found in the web site http://safire.ifac.cnr.it/.

In March 2002, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched ENVISAT, an advanced polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite which provides measurements of the atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice. In particular it carries some atmosphere sounding instruments that measure temperature, ozone, water vapour and other chemical species from the troposphere to the thermosphere.

ASSET was a project to exploit and develop earth observation data from ENVISAT using data assimilation. This activity is fundamental for the development and testing of the models and observations needed to:
1) address climate change and ozone depletion;
2) forecast the future evolution of the atmosphere.

Data assimilation provides an objective and quantitative way of confronting, testing and improving models and observations.

During the ASSET project ENVISAT data were assimilated into three leading Numerical Weather Prediction systems (each set up with different configurations) and into four leading photochemical modelling groups (each modelling group focusing on a key species, or a key region of the atmosphere). Comparison between all assimilated results gave confidence in common conclusions.

The deliverables from ASSET (algorithms, quality-controlled datasets, data dissemination infrastructure) contributed toward improving efforts to understand, simulate, predict and monitor the environment.

Link to ASSET's official web page: http://darc.nerc.ac.uk/asset/index.html.