Measurement Guidelines

Measurement Guidelines - CAIS-ECAC

World Calibration Centre for Aerosol Physics (WCCAP)

The WCCAP was founded in 2002 to serve as a competence center for in-situ physical and optical aerosol measurements as part of the world-wide GAW-program of the WMO. This WCCAP is world-wide unique for the quality assurance of physical and optical in-situ aerosol measurements and station audits to improve infrastructures.

European Reference Laboratory for Air Pollution (ERLAP)

ERLAP was founded in 1994 to serve as a calibration facility for measurements of particulate matter and gaseous air pollutants in Europe. Inter-laboratory comparisons have been organized yearly or more for 2 decades. As a service of the European Commission, ERLAP provides support independently of national and private interests, which makes it unique in Europe.

Aerosol Chemical Monitor Calibration Center (ACMCC)

The ACMCC is managed by a consortium of French laboratories, including CNRS (LSCE and LaMP) and INERIS, and is mainly based at LSCE, located south of the Paris region. As part of the quality control procedures, the ACMCC provides a large set of independent co-located on-line/off-line aerosol measurements for chemical, physical and optical parameters. It offers innovation opportunities through the exchange of information between manufacturers and users, the optimization of technological solutions, and the evaluation of new online aerosol chemical analyzers.

Prague Aerosol Calibration Centre (PACC)

The PACC was founded in 2020 as part of ACTRIS Topical Centre for Aerosol In-Situ observations (CAIS/ECAC). It serves for calibration and quality assurance of physical in-situ aerosol measurements and station audits for ACTRIS and for external users. (operational 2021)

Cluster Calibration Center (CCC)

CCC was founded in 2018 to serve as a calibration facility for sub 10 nm aerosol, cluster and ion measurements. It provides instrument-specific calibration services and training. (operational 2021)

Organic Tracers and Aerosol Constituents Calibration Center (OGTAC-CC)

The Atmospheric Chemistry Department of TROPOS hosts the Organic Tracers and Aerosol Constituents - Calibration Centre (OGTAC-CC), which is the first calibration center for these class of compounds worldwide, providing a strong benefit to the aerosol community, as it harmonizes approaches for the chemical analysis of organic particulate constituents.

Elemental Mass Calibration Centre (EMC2)

The EMC2 unit will be hosted in the INFN LABEC laboratory which is devoted to the analysis of the elemental composition of aerosols, environmental samples and cultural heritage by means of analytical nuclear techniques, such as ion beam analysis, besides other field of applications, for instance material science and forensics, and radiocarbon dating with accelerator mass spectrometry. The LABEC laboratory was born in 2003 with the installation of a 3 MV Tandetron particle accelerator and stems from more than thirty years of experience of the research group members with accelerator-related analytical techniques.

Timeline of the latest releases

22th of January, 2025

Performance & evaluation criteria for calibration workshops & ACTRIS compatibility

On January 2025, the "Performance & evaluation criteria for calibration workshops & ACTRIS compatibility" for the following instruments are updated:

- CEN Condensation Particle Counter (CPC)
- Integrating Nephelometer (IN)
- Absorption Photometer (AP)
- Nano Condensation Particle Counter (Nano CPC)
- Cloud Condensation Nuclei Counter
- CEN Mobility Particle SizeSpectrometer (MPSS)
- Aerodynamic Particle Size Spectrometer (APSS)

20th of December, 2024

ACTRIS ERIC compliant aerosol in‐situ instruments v1.5 December 2024

The ACTRIS aerosol in‐situ instruments
compliance is updated on 20th of December, 2024.

update: v1.1 is released on April 18, 2024
update: v1.2 is released on April 19, 2024
update: v1.4 is released on April 30, 2024
update: v1.5 is released on December 20, 2024

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12th of January, 2024

The final version of "General ACTRIS & GAW recommendation document" is now published.

Recommendation:

On January 2024, the "ACTRIS standard procedures for aerosol in-situ measurements" has been finalised. The document is now public. To access the documents, click below.

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