Period: 2017 - 2021.

Web: https://www.costcolossal.eu

It is funded by the European Program for Cooperation in Research and Technology - COST. Participants in the Management Board of COST Action CA16109 COLOSSAL are Assoc. Prof. B. Veleva and Assoc. Prof. E. Hristova from the Applied Meteorology Section of NIMH.

The main goal of this COLOSSAL Action is to optimize and harmonize online measurements of the composition of fine atmospheric aerosols by coordinating analyzes to assess spatial and temporal variations (with one hour resolution or better), seasonality, phenomenology (chemical composition) of fine atmospheric aerosol throughout Europe. Another goal is to create measurement and data processing protocols to ensure consistent, reproducible and comparable results across Europe.

The activities in this COST action are organized in 4 working groups (WG): WG1: Validation of the data from the measurements of the chemical composition of the fine aerosol in real time with a specialized online system (ACSM); WG2: Determination of the contribution of organic aerosol sources; WP3: Real-time carbon measurement and WG4: Overview of the fine atmospheric aerosol in Europe.

The research of the NIMH team is mainly related to WG2 and WG3. The main tasks of the team are to develop an experimental basis for the determination of BC/ BrC and various organic substances in fine aerosols, upgrading the skills for determining the contribution of different groups of sources to the concentrations of fine atmospheric aerosols (PM) by learning about new methods / models.

The expected results are related to the adaptation of the methodology for using the Aetalometer for determination of BC in the atmospheric aerosol in real time, and harmonization of the measurements of BC in NIMH with those of the other participants in the COST action. The activities will contribute to maintaining and expanding scientific contacts with well-known international centers and research groups.