The project has just been selected by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science to be part of the Danish Roadmap for Research Infrastructures. The Danish Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2020 is Denmark's national strategy for the research infrastructure area. The roadmap indicates the direction for developments in this area in the years to come.

ACTRIS-DK monitors trends within climate and air quality, and the derived effects on human health and the environment. The aim is to achieve a better understanding of the correlation between the composition of the atmosphere and the observed effects on climate change, air quality, human health and ecosystems in a European context, but also outside Europe.

The data collected by ACTRIS-DK is important in efforts to anticipate the future consequences of air quality and climate change on humans and nature.

This requires an infrastructure of measuring stations and laboratory facilities equipped with complex measuring and monitoring instruments and models.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

The head of ACTRIS-DK, Henrik Skov from the Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, is pleased to have received the funding, which now makes it possible to upgrade and connect four existing platforms for research into air quality and climate:

Two atmospheric chemistry and physical observatories located in northern Greenland and central Zealand, respectively, and two laboratories for the study of atmospheric chemistry and physical processes located in Aarhus and Copenhagen, respectively.

"The goal is to create an infrastructure of the highest scientific standard, so that we can study aerosols, trace gases and clouds. This will give us excellent research opportunities, and Denmark will have a research-based platform for making decisions about air quality and the climate," says Henrik Skov.

Furthermore, ACTRIS-DK will become a member of ACTRIS, the European infrastructure for observations of aerosols, clouds and trace gases. A total of 22 countries are currently participating in ACTRIS, and through ACTRIS, ACTRIS-DK will be able to connect researchers to Danish and international measuring stations and laboratory facilities.

The infrastructures will strengthen collaboration between research institutions, both Danish and international institutions, and they will enable broad collaboration with other interested partners.

IMPORTANT DATA FOR GREEN DEVELOPMENT WORK

The new joint infrastructure, which collects data from both observational and exploratory platforms, is crucial for endeavours to understand the social and financial consequences of air quality and the climate.

"With this funding from the research infrastructure pool we can establish facilities we would otherwise not have been able to establish. It will give us access to build knowledge that is extremely important for society," stresses Henrik Skov.

From the Villum Research Station in northern Greenland, where part of ACTRIS-DK's research takes place, Henrik Skov and his fellow researchers can see very clearly the importance of the project's contribution to the green development.

"Today we say that the world has seen a temperature increase of around 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. Up here, the temperature has increased by more than 4 degrees Celsius. This has serious consequences for the ice cover. We are seeing the effects of climate change right now. And it's devastating. If we want to understand what the world will be like in the future, we have to go out and do measurements, so that we can try to understand as much as possible of what is happening," he says.


Read more about the project and the research infrastructure pool on the website of the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science.

Contact:

Professor Henrik Skov, Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University; mail:hsk@envs.au.dk; tel.: +45 87158524.