Field Sites

The Finokalia station is located at a remote coastal site in the northeast of Crete (35° 20'N, 25° 40'E and 250m above sea level). The site is isolated and far away from anthropogenic emissions, and therefore allows the study of aerosols originated from Europe, Balkans, Africa, as well as marine aerosol. Due to the high photochemical conditions the Finokalia station is an ideal location to study the aging of the organic aerosol as well. The LAQS group has participated in three field campaigns at the Finokalia site: FAME-08, FAME-09 and FAME-11. The station is run by the Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory of the University of Crete (ECPL) and it is part of the EUSAAR and ACTRIS Network and reports to the EMEP database.

The urban measurement station of the team is at the roof of a building (at around 30 m above ground level) in the center of Patras, a city with 300,000 inhabitants. The building is one of the tallest in the city and the station provides measurements of the urban background. A PM_2.5 sampler is located there and is used for routine measurements of the aerosol mass concentration and composition. Additional instruments (gas and aerosol) are added during intensive measurement periods. The station has been operating since 2009.

Our rural sampling station is located on a water tower in the small village of Vouprassio (38° 04’N, 21° 23’E) 36 Km west of the city of Patras. The site is often upwind of the city. Measurements are performed there to quantify the contribution of transported pollution to the air quality in the city of Patras. The instrumentation in the site is a filter sampler (Met – One Super-SASS) that allows us to collect multiple PM_2.5 samples and meteorological station. Additional measurements are performed during intensive campaigns taking advantage of the room that exists in the basis of the tower.