The European Integrated project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions, EUCAARI, brings together the leading European research groups, state-of-the-art infrastructure and key players from third countries to investigate the role of aerosol on climate and air quality. The objectives of EUCAARI are (I) Reduction of the current uncertainty of the impact of aerosol particles on climate by 50% and quantification of the relationship between anthropogenic aerosol particles and regional air quality, and (II) Quantification of the side effects of European air quality directives on global and regional climate, and provide tools for future quantifications for different stakeholders. EUCAARI will also contribute to technological developments in the aerosol measurements, enhancing future experiments and air-quality monitoring networks. The project is organized into four scientific elements designed to maximize the integration of methodologies, scales and ultimately our understanding of air quality and climate. New ground-based, aircraft and satellite measurements will be integrated with existing data to produce a global consistent dataset with the highest possible accuracy. A European measurement campaign will be designed around simultaneous multi-station observations, Lagrangian aircraft measurements and carefully selected “super-sites”. A hierarchy of models will be developed based on the results of the laboratory and theoretical investigations. The models will be used to interpret the measurements and will be integrated in regional air quality and global climate models. The result will be measurable improvements in the project's climate and air quality models. The outcomes (scenarios, recommendations, models, harmonized datasets and new knowledge) will be disseminated to authorities, policy makers, the research community, industry, instrument designers, and the EU-ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Program.
