centRe of Excellence in AerosoL remote rensIng technology and Science in The Indian oCean

Project Information

REALISTIC

Grant agreement ID: 101086690

DOI

10.3030/101086690

EC signature date 7 November 2022

Start date 1 December 2022

End date 30 November 2027

Funded under

• Widening participation and spreading excellence

Total cost

€ 2 494 375,00

EU contribution

€ 2 494 375,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE DE LA REUNION
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REALISTIC (centRe of Excellence in AerosoL remote rensIng technology and Science in The Indian oCean)

Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The overarching goal of REALISTIC is to develop a Centre of Excellence in aerosol remote sensing technology and science in the Indian Ocean, through the creation of a Chair, with La Réunion, a European Outermost region, as a strategic pivot point of the European Research Area.
REALISTIC aims at attracting and maintaining a high-profile researcher (ERA Chair holder) to lead a high profile supporting team with excellent research and technical capabilities in the aerosol remote sensing domain. In particular, specific applications and research endeavours will be conducted in the area of quantifying the impact of wildfire and volcanic emissions on the tropical atmosphere composition and on the Earth-Atmosphere radiative balance. REALISTIC is designed to catalyse and maximise the impact of the ERA Chair in order to raise the research, technical and innovation excellence of the Laboratory of Atmosphere and Cyclones (LACy), the Observatory of Atmospheric Physics of La Réunion (OPAR), the Observatory of the Universe Sciences of La Réunion (OSU-R), and the University of La Réunion (UR) to a level that makes them unique and essential references in the local R&I ecosystem, at the Indian Ocean-level as well as to the overall international community, and thus filling the R&I gap on atmospheric systems. REALISTIC will contribute to better integrate UR within the European Research Area, and better align with European standards and priorities.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Project Management
An online Kick Off meeting was set up on 21st of March 2023, involving the 2 partners (UR and UPC), EC (Project Officers) and the Advisory Board (AB).
Regular meetings with the REALISTIC team have been set up, complemented by more scientifically oriented meetings set up by the ERA Chair holder with the newly created LACy team he leads.
A Data Management Plan was produced and submitted as a deliverable.

Team construction and integration in UR institution
The ERA Chair holder was appointed as a Professor at UR. Also, through consultation with the LACy and OSU-R directorates, the “ideal” REALISTIC research team was defined, job opportunities were posted, and PhD1 and Project Manager were recruited.
A Training plan was defined for each member of the REALISTIC team in order to give them the tools needed to complete their actions.
To enhance scientific synergy within LACy, a new transversal team was created right from the start of the project. This new LACy team is led by the ERA Chair holder and focuses on the physico-chemistry processes of the tropical atmosphere.
The REALISTIC team coordinated a multidisciplinary workshop within OSU-R labs to present its works and objectives and foster multidisciplinary collaborations. A specific collaboration opportunity was identified with EnergyLab, an OSU-R lab focusing on solar energy production and management, which led to the AEROFORCE (AEROsol radiative FORCing and their impact on photovoltaic Energy production) project funded by the OSU-R Fédération OMNCG.

Competence raising through capacity building
A Strategic Research Programme and Education plan was framed to specify allocation of resources to research priorities, networking priorities to target potential partners, strategy for publication, strategy for submitting proposals, and strategy for education.
A 5-day seminar was held at UR by UPC staff towards UR librarians and UR young researchers to identify challenges and good practices to improve research support library services, improve the dissemination and organization of services to the UR research community, know the changes that are taking place in scientific communication, recognize tools and resources to practice open science and discover the research infrastructures available to them.
A 5-day hands-on training was held at UR by an UPC researcher on the ACTRIS tools to automate the inversion and the analysis of quality tests of lidar data. It has been a real success as it culminated in the generation of quality tests compliant with the ACTRIS format and the automatic data delivery to the ACTRIS central server in a continuous way (24/7).
The ERA Chair holder has taken the lead of the writing of an EU COST Action on EARLINET-related technological and scientific lidar developments for the global atmospheric community. Actions directly related to priorities to better align LACy/OPAR within ACTRIS-ERIC and NDACC in the aerosol remote sensing field have been taken.

Improvement of Reunion Island R&I capabilities to align with ERA vision and priorities
Multiple meetings with UR’s governance have taken place in order to discuss the use of direct and indirect costs of personnel, about personnel involved in the project. The goal of those discussions was to establish some guidelines applicable to all European projects at UR. The discussions are still ongoing.
Discussions have started for potential collaboration with the local company Reuniwatt providing solutions for high-resolution observation of the cloud cover and the solar irradiation

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The aerosol remote sensing time series now available acts as a basis for ultimately quantifying the radiative impact of aerosol sources in the south-western Indian Ocean (further research needed, of course).
Ongoing discussions with UR on the implementation of common guidelines for all EU projects within UR will lead to smoother realization of such projects in the future.
The AEROFORCE project between LACy and EnergyLab is creating a new collaborative momentum within OSU-R.
The labelisation of OPAR as an Aerosol Remote Sensing National Facility within ACTRIS-EU is on its track thanks to the work performed around the tropospheric aerosol lidar MARLEY.