Project description
Romania’s airborne cloud microphysics research platform rises to new heights
Atmospheric aerosols – liquid and solid particles suspended in the atmosphere – play a critical role in determining Earth’s climate. Whether natural or human-induced, they impact the formation, properties and life cycles of clouds. Characterising these interactions is important for evaluating and predicting the impact of human activities on climate change. The National Institute for Aerospace Research “Elie Carafoli” (INCAS) in Bucharest is the only airborne cloud research platform holder in eastern Europe, making it uniquely positioned to address aerosol-cloud interactions. The EU-funded BRACE-MY project will boost the capacity and recognition of INCAS through a twinning action, providing skills and equipment to obtain, process and interpret data to improve future climate projections.
Objective
As the only airborne cloud research platform holder in Eastern Europe, INCAS is in the perfect position to be a well-known R&D organisation that obtain urgently needed data sets, process and interpret them in order to improve future climate projections. However, to date, a lack of presenting these capabilities has left INCAS too little known in the cloud research community and therefore, underutilized research partner with excellent and very useful facilities. Through the BRACE-MY project, INCAS team will obtain the required skills and an additional equipment needed to complement their research capabilities with state-of-the art aerosol sampling techniques. The foreseen research, conducted in conjunction with strong twinning activities will transfer the skills required for INCAS to perform aerosol-cloud interaction research and elevate its reputation to that of a leader in the cloud and aerosol community. This will be achieved by using a “learning by doing” approach to transfer the best practices for conducting research, disseminating results and educating young scientists from the world-class project partners to INCAS. In particular, this will include: the development of an ice nucleating particle counter based on a state-of-the-art aerosol sampling system provided by a project partner, conducting research flights, publishing and presenting research results within internationally recognized platforms, organizing and lecturing at summer schools designed for upcoming researcher in the field and gaining the managerial skills required to become a recognized partner for aerosol and cloud microphysics research. The project partners have been selected to ensure that all of the objectives are guided by leaders in the field of aerosol and cloud research and acting as a research provider. Therefore, BRACE-MY will give INCAS, a research institute in a “widening country”, the opportunity to elevate itself to an internationally recognized cloud and aerosol research institute.
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Funding Scheme
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinator
061126 Bucuresti
Romania