AURORA (Copernicus Service to Support the Validation and Monitoring of Air Quality in Urban Areas) aims to strengthen the validation and monitoring capacity of air quality products in urban and peri-urban environments across the Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean region. The project supports the Copernicus atmospheric composition services by providing validated Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRMs) and establishing a robust framework for satellite product evaluation in complex urban settings.
The service is implemented at three strategically selected sites: Thessaloniki (Greece), operated by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; Măgurele–Bucharest (Romania), coordinated by the National Institute of R&D for Optoelectronics; and Rome (Italy), including the BAQUNIN supersite jointly operated by Sapienza University of Rome and Serco. These multi-instrument infrastructures provide long-term datasets and are capable of capturing a wide range of atmospheric conditions, including Saharan dust transport, biomass burning events, industrial pollution episodes, and regional background regimes.
AURORA establishes a proof-of-concept validation framework for the upcoming Copernicus missions Sentinel-4, Sentinel-5, and CO2M. This is achieved through the integration of high-quality ground-based observations with collocated satellite measurements from missions such as TROPOMI, OMI, GOME-2, IASI, Sentinel-3, and MicroCarb. The activities directly contribute to the Copernicus atmospheric composition calibration and validation programme, supporting commissioning, early operations, and long-term performance assessment of the new satellite missions.
Beyond validation, the project develops harmonised procedures for data collection, quality control, and access, advances synergistic retrieval algorithms across multi-instrument platforms, and implements chemical transport model simulations to provide complementary support for validation analyses. Through coordinated reporting and outreach, AURORA ensures strong alignment with Copernicus stakeholders and enhances visibility within the international Cal/Val community.
By integrating ground-based infrastructures, satellite observations, and modelling tools within a coordinated European partnership, AURORA strengthens the scientific basis for reliable urban air quality monitoring and supports the long-term evolution of Copernicus atmospheric services.
The project started in 2026 and is currently ongoing.