Lecce Observation site

Internal and external view of the CNR-ISAC Environmental-Climate Observatory of Lecce
Internal and external view of the CNR-ISAC Environmental-Climate Observatory of Lecce
Internal view of Aerosol&Climate Laboratory of the University of Salento
Internal view of Aerosol&Climate Laboratory of the University of Salento

 

The Lecce observation site consists of the CNR-ISAC Environmental-Climate Observatory of Lecce and the Aerosol&Climate Laboratory of the University of Salento.

It is an ‘urban background’ site located about 4 km SW of the urban area of Lecce at about 15 km from the Adriatic Sea and between 30 km and 80 km from the industrial complexes of Brindisi and Taranto (the largest complexes of the Region Puglia).
The site is optimal for monitoring natural pollution sources such as Saharan dust transport from North Africa towards Europe, forest fires in North Africa or Southern Italy or volcanic emissions.

The contribution of regional scale pollutions due to biomass burning, agricultural wastes, and secondary pollutants production as well as new particle formation and growth events could be efficiently investigated at the observatory.
Moreover, it represents an integrated system based on observations and models in order to better evaluate the aerosol transport and its impact on the radiative budget of the Earth-Atmosphere system and thus on the climate, in particular over the Mediterranean area.

Therefore, the Aerosol&Climate laboratory carries out research activity in order to characterize both ground-based and columnar atmospheric components and to study their effects on the climate system by using radiative transfer models and regional climate models.
The research activity carried out at the site is linked to several observational networks (GAW-WMO, EARLINET, ACTRIS, AERONET).

The site hosts a suite of active and passive remote sensing and ground-based instruments that provide climatologically significant observations of the main aerosol optical and microphysical properties at the surface and along the aerosol column. It represents the largest permanent observation site in the Apulia region.

 

Instruments operative at the site:

Meteorology and radiation

  • T, P, RH, WD, WI
  • shortwave and longwave upwelling and downwelling
  • Pyranometers and pyrgeometres

Micrometeorology

  • Reynolds stresses and kinetic turbulent energy
  • Sensible heat fluxes

Trace Gases

  • Surface Ozone
  • Sulfur Dioxide
  • Carbon Dioxide, Metane, Carbon monoxide
  • Nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2).

Aerosol particles

  • Particle number size distribution using an Optical Particle Counter (size range: 280 nm - 10µm)
  • Particle number size distribution using a SMPS (size range 10-800 nm)
  • Aerosol daily mass concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10
  • OC and EC for PM2.5 and PM10 offline (about 10 samples per month)
  • Aerosol chemistry (intensive campaings)
  • Scattering and back scattering coefficient (450, 550, 700 nm)
  • Absorption coefficient (630 nm)
  • Integrating nephelometer
  • Equivalent black carbon concentration, derived from absorption coefficient
  • Particle number fluxes (eddy-covariance) and total particle number concentrations (size range 4 nm to 3μm), post-processed offline with 30 mins resolution

Remote sensing

  • Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS)
  • LIDAR UNILE
  • Sun-lunar photometer
  • Integration with measurements from devices on-board satellites as MODIS and CALIPSO

 

For more information please visit:

 

Contacts:

- Dr. Daniele Contini: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

- Dr. Maria Rita Perrone: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

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