• ARS site: 42.368°N 13.350°E 656 m a.s.l.
• CRS site: 42.383°N 13.315°E 680 m a.s.l.

Observational platform

Italy

• University of L''Aquila

• Vincenzo Rizi
  Facility PI

The UNIAQ/CETEMPS site is located within the Central Apennines in Italy, in a valley surrounded by mountains about 2000 m a.s.l., and the highest peak of Central Apennines (i.e., Corno Grande, about 3000 m a.s.l.) located 20 km north-east. The West coast is located 100 km away, and the East coast 60 km away. The climate at the site is classified as temperate (ranging between Cfa and Cfb classes of Köppen-Geiger classification), with cold winters and warm summers. The area is often affected by thermal inversions, and by the Mediterranean circulation in the upper levels with intrusion of Saharan dust.
The UNIAQ/CETEMPS includes two ground-based fixed sites located in the suburban area of L'Aquila:
- The ACTRIS ARS site is located in a sparse urban area, with commercial and industrial warehouses interleaved by crops and pastures fields.
- The ACTRIS CRS site is located in a rural landscape. At this site are performed balloon soundings for the ozone profiling, twice a month in average.

The scientific goal pursued at UNIAQ/CETEMPS is the long-term profiling of ozone, and the study of atmospheric aerosol and precipitation. Lidar developed by University of L'Aquila is used in parallel with advanced commercial instrumentation, both active and passive. Besides ACTRIS, the instruments at the site aim for contributing to various networks (i.e., WOUDC, AERONET, E-PROFILE).