The aim of the project is to provide improved knowledge on chemical and physical characteristics of aerosols at a west of Ireland location. Such data are of use in studies of long range transport of aerosols/particulates and their impacts on the regional radiation balance. The potential consequences of global climate change are outlined in the recent Third Assessment Report (Working Group I) of the International Panel on Climate Change established by the World Meteorological Organisation (IPCC, 2001). This document provides guidance to Governments on the causes and impacts of climate change. Various aerosol climate effects are highlighted in this Report. The Report shows that uncertainty in estimates of aerosol effects, i.e. direct refection of sunlight and indirect alerting cloud reflectivity and life time, provide the greatest uncertainties in current understanding anthropogenic impacts on radiative forcing and thereby climate. This problem has been compounded by the lack of quantitative data. This study of composition, sources and radiative properties of aerosols is therefore making an important contribution to understanding of aerosol climate interactions. The main objectives of this work are to (i) to develop progressively measurements of aerosol chemical and physical properties at the primary maritime background atmospheric research station in western Europe, at Mace Head; (ii) to deploy complementary instrumentation to provide aerosol radiative measurements.

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Ceburnis, D. Jennings, G.   "Aerosol chemical inorganic species mass concentration". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=a637ac67-4236-102b-950d-28616e04c7da (Last Accessed: 2025-01-22)

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SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=58
Resource Keywords	Aerosol composition, aerosol sources, aerosol radiative properties, Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	2000-LS-5.3.2 M
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Air Quality
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	Data usage should be communicated to the authors of the work (see citation below)
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	4
Project Start Date	Thursday 30th November 2000 (30-11-2000)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Wednesday 1st August 2001 (01-08-2001)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Monday 1st December 2003 (01-12-2003)
Published on SAFER	Thursday 13th March 2008 (13-03-2008)
Date of Last Edit	Thursday 20th May 2010 at 11:05:38 (20-05-2010)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Tuesday 3rd June 2008 at 20:16:23 (03-06-2008)

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Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
"Mace Head - General Information Located on the west coast of Ireland, the Atmospheric Research Station at Mace Head, Carna, County Galway is unique in Europe, offering westerly exposure to the North Atlantic ocean (clean sector, 180 degrees through west to 300 degrees) and the opportunity to study atmospheric composition under Northern Hemispheric background conditions as well as European continental emissions when the winds favour transport from that region. The site location, at 53 degrees 20 minutes N, 9 degrees 54 minutes W, is in the path of the mid-latitude cyclones which frequently traverse the North Atlantic. It is 88 km west of Galway city (population approximately 70,000) which is the nearest major conurbation. The main Atlantic shipping routes are over 150 km away, while the transatlantic air corridors are over 80 km away. There are three small islands offshore which are within the clean sector, but these are uninhabited and do not appear to influence any of the measurements made at the site. The meteorological records show that on average, over 50% of the air masses arrive at the station via the clean sector. These air masses are ideal for carrying out background aerosol and trace gas measurements.

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The following is a list of projects, datasets, and resources on SAFER-Data from which users downloaded attachments from soon after downloading attachments from this resource Aerosol chemical inorganic species mass concentration. You can view the full description for projects, datasets, and resources by using the links supplied.

• AQUIRE: Air Quality Forecast and Statistics over Ireland View Full Metadata Description
• eDiesel - Barriers and Benefits View Full Metadata Description
• Climate Change - Implementationof the Global Climate Observing System in Ireland View Full Metadata Description
• Ireland's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory View Full Metadata Description
• Precipitation chemistry data starting 2005 for Oak Park, Glenn Veagh, Wexford View Full Metadata Description

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