• Repair/Maintenance Site: 51.353°N 12.434°E
• Standby Site: 51.525°N 12.928°E

Mobile platform

Germany

• Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)

https://www.tropos.de/en/research/projects-infrastructures-technology/coordinated-observations-and-networks/acme

• Jan-David Förster
  Facility PI (since 26 May 2023)
• Mira Pöhlker
  PI deputy (since 1 Jan 2026)

ACME is a two-component mobile exploratory platform for worldwide aerosol characterization from tropics to poles: a container lab for ground-based in-situ measurements, complemented by the BELUGA tethered balloon system for vertical profiling of key aerosol, cloud, and meteorological properties up to 1.5 km altitude.

ACME addresses critical gaps in aerosol-cloud interactions and near-field processes overlooked by remote sensing, delivering comprehensive state-of-the-art in-situ aerosol characterization from ground to 1.5 km altitude. Its focus centers on simultaneous high-resolution ground-level aerosol mapping combined with vertical profiling via the BELUGA tethered balloon system (up to 20 kg payloads for hours-long measurements), alongside meteorological and turbulence observations.

Research capabilities encompass ACTRIS-compliant aerosol in-situ instrumentation (APS, MPSS, CPC, Nephelometer, Aethalometer, CCNc) plus balloon payloads (e.g., CDP, mSEMS). ACME can be flexibly supplemented on demand with additional instruments (e.g., chemical speciation, trace gases),
and by other platforms such as UAVs or mobile, networked, scalable backpack systems for 2-dimensional characterization of the aerosol field on the ground during worldwide campaigns.