Ongoing Projects

Projects ended in 2015

Biogeochemical Cycles

PANOPLY: Pollution Alters Natural aerosol composition: Implications for Ocean Productivity, cLimate and air qualitY

September 2012 - September 2015 (Maria Kanakidou - coordinator )

http://ecpl.chemistry.uoc.gr/panoply

PANOPLY aims to evaluate interactions between natural (dust) and anthropogenic emissions in the atmosphere and their impact on air quality and climate via atmospheric and ocean forcing. These interactions might be critical in stabilizing the Earth system by feedback mechanisms that have not yet been explored. It will assess:

1) Interactions in the atmosphere by strong chemical coupling of natural (mainly dust) and anthropogenic (mainly acid precursors NOx and SOx) emissions and of aerosols and gases;

2) Interactions of atmosphere with the ocean via atmospheric deposition of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and to a lesser extent iron);

3) The impact of chemical changes to the radiation balance in the atmosphere.

The project is strongly multidisciplinary, relying on synergistic use of state-of-the art tools for laboratory, field, satellite imagery and modeling (global 3-d atmospheric chemistry transport, radiation and atmospheric deposition to the marine ecosystem) investigations, continuously interacting. It crosses the boundaries between atmospheric chemistry-transport, atmospheric radiation and ocean productivity.

ADAMANT: Atmospheric Deposition And MediterraneAN sea water productivity

March 2012 - April 2015 (Maria Kanakidou - principal invesigator )

http://www.thales-adamant.hcmr.gr/

Mediterranean Sea (MS), especially the eastern basin is one the most oligotrophic seas. The N/P ratio is unusually high with a west (22:1) to east (28:1) increasing gradient. Atmospheric deposition was recently suggested as the main external mechanism supplying nutrients to the marine environment. The proposed project aims at quantifying the role of atmospheric deposition of nutrients as a driver for the seawater productivity changes in the MS through modeling and experimental work. This will be achieved by coupling atmospheric and sea-water observations and elaborate them by a marine biogeochemical/ecosystem model that will be forced by an atmospheric chemistry/transport/deposition model. The project will quantify the atmospheric deposition of nutrients, their anthropogenic component and their long-term variability (hindcast and forecast simulations). It will then evaluate the response of the oceanic biogeochemistry to these forcings. It is the first time that such a strong coupling between atmospheric scientists and oceanographers is realized in the Mediterranean. The project aspires to highlight the biogeochemical functioning of the MS and how this is influenced by anthropogenic activity and future climatic changes. In this perspective, the proposed work is structured in 4 WP which cover: atmospheric and marine observations and targeted experiments (both atmospheric and oceanic) aiming at determining the drivers of the marine ecosystem changes and parameterizing their impact (WP1); modeling of the atmosphere (WP2) and of the marine ecosystem in the East and the West Mediterranean (WP3). Present day evaluations of impacts will be complemented by hind cast and forecast simulations to evaluate the evolution of these impacts since 1900 and until 2100 (WP2 & WP3). Maximum profit of the project resources and best dissemination of the results is assured by WP4 that focuses on the management and the dissemination of the project results to the scientific community, the general public and policy makers.

Air pollution and Climate

ECLIPSE: Evaluating the CLimate and Air Quality ImPacts of Short-livEd Pollutants

November 2011 - October 2014 (M. Kanakidou - pricipal investigator as ICE-HT/FORTH)

11 partners from 7 countries http://eclipse.nilu.no

ECLIPSE is a Collaborative Project funded under the EU Seventh Framework Programme - (ENV.2011.1.1.2-2) Climate forcing of non UNFCCC gases, aerosols and black carbon.

ECLIPSE is aiming to develop and assess effective emission abatement strategies for short-lived climate forcers in order to provide sound scientific advice on measures that mitigate climate change and improve air quality at the same time. Current climate policy does not consider a range of short-lived gases and aerosols, and their precursors (including nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, sulphate, and black carbon). These nevertheless make a significant contribution to climate change and directly influence air quality.

PEGASOS: Pan-European Gas-AeroSOls-climate interaction Study

January 2011-December 2014 (M. Kanakidou - part of the coordinating group at ICE-HT/FORTH & WP leader)

26 partners from 15 countries http://pegasos.iceht.forth.gr

PEGASOS is a large scale Integrated Project funded by the European Commission under the Framework Programme 7, addressing the call on Atmospheric chemistry and climate change interactions. PEGASOS brings together most of the leading European research groups, with state-of the-art observational and modeling facilities to:

Quantify the magnitude of regional to global feedbacks between atmospheric chemistry and a changing climate and to reduce the corresponding uncertainty of the major ones.

Identify mitigation strategies and policies to improve air quality while limiting their impact on climate change.

Impact of atmospheric inputs to the Mediterranean marine ecosystem

PERSEUS : Prorection of ERuRopean SEas and borders through the intelligent USe of surveillance

January 2012 - December 2015 (N. Mihalopoulos & M. Kanakidou - principal co-investigators - ECPL/UoC)

29 partners from 12 countries http://www.perseus-fp7.eu

PERSEUS represents the first demonstration project implemented by the FP7 Security Research Theme. Demonstration programmes represent a novelty for the EU RTD Framework programmes. They are aimed at large scale integration, validation and demonstration of novel security systems of systems, and represent European flagships, providing a federative frame to coalesce research in areas of significant European interest. Being part of the Demonstration programmes PERSEUS has being defined and planned to provide protection to the European seas and borders with smart use of technologies.

Coordinated actions for Environment

DARECLIMED: Data Repositories and Computational infrastructure for environmental and Climate studies in eastern MEDiterranean

February 2011 - February 2013 (N. Mihalopoulos principal investigator)

7 partners from 5 countries http://eewrc.cyi.ac.cy/DARECLIMED

The EU-DARECLIMED project aims to identify, rescue, collect and disseminate regional datasets or information about such datasets related to climate, the water and the energy sectors: Ultimately, the project aims at specifying best practices as well as concrete measures aimed at building-up a data repository and at sharing of regional data, climate model methodologies and climate-model-simulation results.

Ongoing Projects

Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Interactions

BACCHUS: Impact of Biogenic versus Anthropogenic emissions on Clouds and Climate: towards a Holistic UnderStanding

December 2013-November 2017 (M. Kanakidou - principal investigator ECPL/UOC and WP leader)

20 partners from EU countries, Switzerland and Israel http://www.bacchus.ethz.ch

BACCHUS is a European FP7 collaborative project under the lead of ETH Zurich, Switzerland. In the next 4 years, BACCHUS research will contribute to better understand key processes in aerosol-cloud interactions.

BACCHUS proposes to quantify key processes and feedbacks controlling ACI, by combining advanced measurements of cloud and aerosol properties with state-of-the-art numerical modelling. The analysis of contrasting environments will be the guiding strategy for BACCHUS. We will investigate the importance of biogenic versus anthropogenic emissions for ACI in regions that are key regulators of Earth's climate (Amazonian rain forest) or are regarded as tipping elements in the climate system (Arctic).

BACCHUS will generate a unique database linking long-term observations and field campaign data of aerosol, cloud condensation and ice nuclei and cloud microphysical properties; this will enable a better quantification of the natural aerosol concentrations and the anthropogenic aerosol effect.

M. Kanakidou web version 2017