The fog and aerosol interaction research Italy (FAIRARI) campaign, November 2021 to May 2022
Almuth Neuberger, Stefano Decesari, Andreas Aktypis, Hendrik Andersen, Darrel Baumgardner, Federico Bianchi, Maurizio Busetto, Jing Cai, Jan Cermak, Sudhakar Dipu, Annica Ekman, Sandro Fuzzi, Yvette Gramlich, Sophie L. Haslett, Liine Heikkinen, Jorma Joutsensaari, Christos Kaltsonoudis, Juha Kangasluoma, Radovan Krejci, Angelo Lupi, Angela Marinoni, Angeliki Matrali, Fredrik Mattsson, Claudia Mohr, Athanasios Nenes, Marco Paglione, Spyros N. Pandis, Anil Patel, Ilona Riipinen, Matteo Rinaldi, Sarah S. Steimer, Dominik Stolzenburg, Juha Sulo, Christina N. Vasilakopoulou, Paul Zieger
The Po Valley in Italy ranks among the most polluted regions in Europe. During winter, meteorological conditions often lead to prolonged and dense fog, which significantly impacts visibility and human health. In spring, nighttime fog frequency decreases, while daytime new particle formation events become more frequent. This shift is likely due to a reduction in particulate matter levels, which lowers the condensation sink. Despite decades of research on fog and aerosol physics and chemistry at the San Pietro Capofiume site since the 1980s, the detailed mechanisms behind these trends remain unclear.
To address this, the “Fog and Aerosol InteRAction Research Italy” (FAIRARI) campaign was conducted in the winter and spring of 2021/2022. The campaign employed various methods, including in-situ measurements, outdoor chamber experiments, and remote sensing, to analyze atmospheric components—from gas molecules and molecular clusters to fog droplets.
AtmosphereAerosolsAir pollutionFogAerosol-fog-interactionCloudsAtmospheric chemistryAerosolsItalyFAIRARI
Datasets
Name
Version
Citation
References
Neuberger A, Decesari S, Aktypis A, Andersen H, Baumgardner D, Bianchi F, Busetto M, Cai J, Cermak J, Dipu S, Ekman A, Fuzzi S, Gramlich Y, Haslett SL, Heikkinen L, Joutsensaari J, Kaltsonoudis C, Kangasluoma J, Krejci R, Lupi A, Marinoni A, Matrali A, Mattsson F, Mohr C, Nenes A, Paglione M, Pandis SN, Patel A, Riipinen I, Rinaldi M, Steimer SS, Stolzenburg D, Sulo J, Vasilakopoulou CN, Zieger P (2024) From molecules to droplets: The Fog and Aerosol InteRAction Research Italy (FAIRARI) 2021/22 campaign. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-23-0166.1
Comments
FAIRARI campaign objectives
The FAIRARI campaign took place from November 2021 to May 2022 at the San Pietro Capofiume (SPC) research station in the Italian Po Valley, with an Intensive Observation Period (IOP) occurring between February and April 2022. The primary objectives of FAIRARI were to:
-
Characterize the properties of various atmospheric components, including particle precursor gases, newly formed particles, aerosol particles, hydrated aerosols, fog droplets (activated aerosols), and dried fog droplets (droplet residuals).
-
Assess the impact of fog processing on aerosol composition and evaluate the oxidative potential as an indicator of particulate matter toxicity.
-
Advance theoretical models by integrating novel observations into detailed simulations of aerosol and hydrometeor populations, coupled with atmospheric dynamics, chemistry, and physics.
-
Identify the characteristics of new particle formation and particle growth during and after transitions from foggy to clear conditions.
More details on research goals, set-up, and first results are given in the overview publication by Neuberger et al (2024).
This campaign was an essential part of the H2020 project FORCeS and included collaborators from Italy, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Greece, and Germany.
How to cite
Please cite the article by Neuberger et al. (2024) and also the relevant individual datasets.
Version history
Version 3
4 datasets
Version 2
3 datasets
Version 1
Initial release. 2 datasets
Project
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project FORCeS under grant agreement No 821205, ”NPF-PANDA” under grant agreement No. 895875); European Commission under the Horizon 2020 –Research and Innovation Framework Programme, H2020-INFRAIA-2020-1, Grant Agreement number: 101008004; European Research Council (Consolidator grant INTEGRATE No 865799); Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant numbers 2021.0169 and 2021.0298); Finnish research council (project numbers 356134, 346370, 325656); and Viennese Vienna Science and Technology Fund (project VRG22-003).
Publisher
Bolin Centre Database
License
First name
Paul
Last name or organisation
Zieger
Email address
Address
Department of Environmental Science; Stockholm University
Postal code
SE-106 91
City
Stockholm
Country
Sweden
GCMD science keyword
Earth science
GCMD location
Continent > Europe > Southern Europe > Italy
Dataset language
English
Begin date
2021-11-01
End date
2022-05-01