ACTRIS enabling transnational access to atmospheric data for European Earth System Science

Advancing Earth System Science (ESS) requires seamless access to interoperable, high-quality observational data across domains, scales and national boundaries. The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) contributes to this goal by providing harmonised atmospheric composition and cloud observations through a distributed European network of National Facilities, supported by central calibration, quality assurance and FAIR data and services.

ACTRIS Central Facilities aggregates ground-based in-situ and remote-sensing measurements of aerosols, clouds and reactive trace gases and delivers them through its Data Centre using standardised metadata, persistent identifiers and interoperable interfaces. These features enable transnational data reuse and facilitate integration with other environmental research infrastructures and modelling frameworks within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

An important services is the ACTRIS Virtual Research Environment (VRE) and streaming of data. The ACTRIS VRE enables efficient discovery, access, and scientific analysis of long-term observational data from ACTRIS National Facilities as well as other ground based observational sites as e.g. EMEP, EARLINET, Cloudnet and GAW. It facilitates analyses such as calculation of climatologies, long-term trend assessments, and the combination of datasets within the ACTRIS domain. Another pilot service ready is the opportunity for machine-to-machine access and streaming of data.