Remote Sensing        INOE

Terra. Căminul a 7,4 miliarde de oameni și 1,7 milioane de specii. Între noi și spațiul cosmic, nicio barieră. Doar ATMOSFERA. Nu este prea mult aer. Comparativ cu dimensiunile globului, atmosfera este foarte subțire. De aceea, tot ceea ce se întâmplă pe Pământ o afectează în mod dramatic.

Zilnic auzim în toate mediile de informare cât de mult s-a schimbat planeta noastră în ultimele decenii, OMUL fiind cel ce a contribuit în mod decisiv la această schimbare.

The Observatory open its doors for scientists all over the world offering trans-national access to infrastructure. In the same time, it opens a world of knowledge to young people and children, within its Science Center.

This project aims at integrating European ground-based stations equipped with advanced atmospheric probing instrumentation for aerosols, clouds and short-lived gas-phase species. It is a multidisciplinary project, combining ground-based and remote sensing instruments and networks, experimental and theoretical research, modeling and observations.

Volcanic ash reaching Europe in April 2010 traveled not as a compact mass, but dispersed between 2 and 14 Km, and this affected aviation and European economy. With our (INOE) 3 aerosol lidar systems and ground-based instruments, we provided daily reports to EARLINET and various national authorities (civil aviation, weather service, environmental agencies) to advise them about plume trajectory, height and density.

Although enhancing previous results, partnerships and projects, and benefiting from a synergy of funds (e.g. national funds - project ROLINET, EXIST, REMARKT, EU funds for research - project DELICE) this infrastructure was boosted in 2009 by a 2.43mil EUR Norway Grant (STVES 115266) project, co-financed (0.44 mil EUR) by the National Authority for Scientific Research.

Years ago, somebody smart asked to Romanian scientists to reconsider their individual plans and start working together in partnerships. It was a hard lesson to learn, but a great advantage in accessing international funds, because at the time when programs like Norway Grants were launched, we already had something to build on.

The aim of EARLI09 campaign was to compare reference and non-reference mobile lidar systems in EARLINET in various atmospheric conditions and also to validate all channels showing acceptable deviations. The campaign was organized in Leipzig, Germany, at the Institute for Tropospheric Physics, 4 - 29 May 2009.