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Draft:European Experiment on Transportation and Transformation of Environmentally Relevant Trace Constituents

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European Experiment on Transportation and Transformation of Environmentally Relevant Trace Constituents (EUROTRAC) was a joint European scientific research programme within the Eureka Framework.

Eurotrac was accepted as a Eureka project at the second Eureka Ministerial Conference held in Hannover (Germany) in November 1985. After a two-year definition phase, the work started in January 1988, and ended in 1995. At the peak of the programme, it included more than 250 research groups from 24 European countries and its budget exceeded 16 million ECU per year (equivalent to approx. 16 million Euro).

Objectives and focus areas
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The objective of Eurotrac was to:

  • increase the basic knowledge in atmospheric science;
  • promote the technological development of sensitive, specific and fast respons instruments for environmental research and monitoring;
  • improve the scientific basis for taking future political decisions on environmental management in European countries.

Eurotrac studied the impact of human activities on the troposphere over Europe, focusing on:

  • The chemistry and transport of photo-oxidants (especially ozone) in the troposphere
  • The processes leading to formation of acidity in the atmosphere
  • The uptake and release of atmospheric trace substances by the biosphere.

Eurotrac[1] was an interdisciplinary programme involving field experiments and campaigns, laboratory studies, comprehensive model developments and simulations, emission estimation, studies of biosphere / atmosphere exchange and the development of advanced instruments for laboratory and field measurements.

Projects and outcome
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Totally 14 projects were established as part of the EUROTRAC programme. Under each project, several subprojects and studies were carried out. Numerous articles and findings resulting from numerous studies have been presented at symposiums held during and after the EUROTRAC period. These articles can be found on websites like Springer[2], Fraunhofer Gesellschaft [3].and ResearchGate[4]. The 14 EUROTRAC projects were:

Cloud studies:

  • ACE: Acidity in Cloud Experiments
  • GCE: Ground Based Cloud Experiment[5]

Field measurements:

  • ALPTRAC: High Alpine Air and Snow Chemistry[6]
  • TOR: Tropospheric Ozone Research[7] [8]
  • TRACT: Transport of Pollutants over Complex Terrain[9]

Biosphere / Atmosphere exchange:

  • ASE: Air-Sea Exchange[10]
  • BIATEX: Biosphere-Atmosphere exchange of pollutants and Trace substances[11]

Laboratory studies:

  • HALIPP: Heterogeneous and Liquid Phase Processes[12]
  • LACTOZ: Laboratory Studies of Chemistry Related to Tropospheric Ozone[13]

Model development:

  • EUMAC: European Modelling of Atmospheric Constituents[14]
  • GLOMAC: Global Modelling of Atmospheric Chemistry[15]

Instrument Development:

  • JETDLAG: Joint European Development of Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy for Measurement of Atmospheric Trace Gases[16]
  • TESLAS: Tropospheric Environmental Studies by Laser Sounding[17]
  • TOPAS:  Tropospheric Optical Absorption Spectroscopy[18]
Funding and cooperation
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Eurotrac was a science-driven, "bottom-up" research programme, where the scientist involved in the programme proposed research projects. The scientist had to seek funding themselves, primarily through their own national funding sources. In some cases also the European Commission contributed to the funding.

In order to become a Eurotrac-project, the project proposals had to be evaluated by the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) and finally approved by the Internation Executive Committee (IEC).

Organisation
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Eurotrac was headed by an International Executive Committee (IEC). IEC consisted of one representative from each member country. IEC approved the subproject proposals and appointed members to the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC). SSC reviewed the subproject proposals and the progress and results of the individual subprojects. The International Scientific Secretariat (ISS) coordinated the EUROTRAC project. The ISS was operated from Fraunhofer Institute for Atmospheric Research (Fraunhofer Institut für Atmosphärische Umweltforschung - IFU), located in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany).

Second phase
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After ending the first phase of Eurotrac (1988-1995, decribed above), Eurotrac-2[19] was initiated in 1996. During the second phase 25 countries and more than 300 research groups were involved.

References

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  1. ^ Borell, Peter; Grennfelt, Peringe (2000). "EUROTRAC: Organisation Structure and Achievements". ResearchGate.
  2. ^ Borrell, Peter; Borrell, Patricia M. (2000). "Transport and Chemical Transformation of Pollutants in the Troposphere - An overview of the work of EUROTRAC". Springer Link.
  3. ^ "Transport and transformation of pollutants in the troposphere. Proceedings of EUROTRAC Symposium '96. Vol. 2: Emissions, deposition, laboratory work and instrumentation". Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. 1997.
  4. ^ Borrell, Peter; Borrell, Patricia M. (2000). "Transport and Chemical Transformation of Pollutants in the Troposphere: An Overview of the Work of EUROTRAC". ResearchGate.
  5. ^ Fuzzi, Sandro (2000). "GCE: An Overview of Ground Based Cloud Experiments". Springer Link.
  6. ^ Wagenbach, Dietmar (2000). "ALPTRAC: High Alpine Air and Snow Chemistry". Springer Link.
  7. ^ Hov, Øystein (1991). "Norwegian Eurotrac Participaton - TOR-project" (PDF). Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU).
  8. ^ Hov, Øystein (2000). "TOR: An Overview of Tropospheric Ozone Research". Springer Link.
  9. ^ Fiedler, Franz; Borrell, Peter (2000). "TRACT: Transport of Air Pollutants over Complex Terrain". Springer Link.
  10. ^ Larsen, Søren E. (2000). "ASE: An Overview of the Air-Sea Exchange Subproject". Springer Link.
  11. ^ Slanina, Sjaak (2000). "BIATEX: Assessment and Achievements".
  12. ^ Warneck, Peter (2000). "HALIPP: Heterogeneous and Liquid Phase Processes". Springer Link.
  13. ^ Le Bras, Georges (2000). "LACTOZ: Chemical Processes related to Tropospheric Ozone". Springer Link.
  14. ^ Ebel, Adolf (2000). "EUMAC: European Modelling of Atmospheric Constituents". Springer Link.
  15. ^ Rodhe, Henning (2000). "GLOMAC: An Overview of Global Atmospheric Chemistry Modelling". Springer Link.
  16. ^ Brassington, David J. (2000). "JETDLAG: Joint European Development of Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy for the Measurement of Atmospheric Trace Gases". Springer Link.
  17. ^ Bösenberg, Jens (2000). "TESLAS: Tropospheric Environmental Studies by Laser Sounding". Springer Link.
  18. ^ Simon, Paul C. (2000). "TOPAS: Tropospheric Optical Absorption Spectroscopy". Springer Link.
  19. ^ "Network of scientists is the driving force in EU air pollution policy". European Commission. 2005.
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