GEOmon ends!
GEOmon, a European project, was funded under the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme. It ran from February 2007 to April 2011 and brought together scientists specialised in the study of greenhouse gases, air pollution, aerosols, and stratospheric ozone.
The overall goal of the GEOmon project was to sustain and analyse European ground-based observations of atmospheric composition, complementary to satellite measurements, in order to quantify and understand ongoing atmospheric changes.
GEOmon was a first step in developing an integrated pan-European Atmospheric Observing System dealing with systematic observations of long-lived greenhouse gases, reactive gases, aerosols, and stratospheric ozone. Through this objective, GEOmon contributed markedly to GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), while at the same time optimising the European strategy of environmental monitoring in the field of atmospheric composition observations, e.g. in the framework of the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) European programme.
Communication of results
The GEOmon Distributed Database, a web portal designed to assist scientists with discovering and accessing atmospheric composition data, will continue to exist and can be accessed here. The GDDB will be maintained and developed further through the EU Research Infrastructure project ACTRIS. The GDDB will contiunue to be a search, discovery and download system, but is planned to have an additional data analysis and processing component.
Significant scientific publications generated within GEOmon can be found and downloaded on the publications page.
A summary of the main scientific achievements of the project is currently in preparation and will be made available soon. A brochure communicating the main results of GEOmon in an accessible way to the interested reader can be downloaded now by clicking on the image below.
Further questions
GEOmon had six main activities: Greenhouse Gases, Reactive Gases, Aerosols, Stratospheric Ozone, Modelling and Dissemination of Data. Questions about these activities may be directed at the relevant activity leader:
- Greenhouse Gases: Euan Nisbet, Royal Holloway University London, UK
- Reactive Gases: Brigitte Buchmann, Empa, Switzerland
- Aerosols: Gerrit de Leeuw, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
- Stratospheric Ozone: Martine De Mazière, BIRA-IASB, Belgium
- Modelling: Michael Schulz, LSCE and MetNo, France/Norway
- Data Base and Data Management: Kjetil Tørseth, NILU, Norway
- Outreach: Sophie Godin-Beekmann, University of Jussieu, France
More general questions or enquiries about the project can be addressed to the project office (geomoncoord_at_lists.lsce.ipsl.fr).
Descriptions of the GEOmon project
Commentary in Nature by Euan Nisbet
"Earth monitoring: Cinderella science"
On-the-ground monitoring is unglamorous work, seldom rewarded by funding agencies or the science community. But we neglect it at our peril, warns Euan Nisbet.
A Lufthansa passenger aircraft carries the CARIBIC container to various destinations to perform monthly measurements on long-distance flights. Measurements of aerosols and various trace gases are performed during the project CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container).
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