As a cloud moves through environmental air, cloudy and cloud free air mix at the cloud edges in the entrainment process. Entrainment is a key cloud process central to understanding cloud morphology and microphysical processes such as precipitation formation. After decades of research, no reliable formulation exists that allows to describe and understand entrainment in terms of cloud- and environmental physical quantities ("the entrainment puzzle"). Differences in representation of entrainment in climate models are a main cause for spread in climate sensitivity estimates. The realistic treatment of entrainment in climate models will help to reduce a large part of the uncertainty in predictions of climate sensitivity. This project aims at Solving The Entrainment Puzzle (STEP): - By identification of the main physical parameters that govern the amount of air entrained into and detrained from clouds using controlled laboratory measurements. - By translating the experimental results into a new mathematical formulation to use in Large Eddy Simulations of clouds using computational fluid dynamics modelling. In a unique approach, STEP will combine observations from a novel turbulent cloud chamber, computational fluid dynamics, and Large Eddy Simulations to develop a new reliable entrainment calculation scheme. Solving the entrainment puzzle will allow quantifying the entrainment processes reliably and thus deliver the basis for climate model improvements. The STEP project builds on my expertise in cloud microphysics and dynamics gained at various international institutes and will be accomplished at a leading international research institution. The host will provide me with excellent complementary training and career development opportunities. Through various dissemination and communication activities, STEP will contribute to the visibility and excellence of the European Science Area, addressing one of the Europe 2020 strategy main targets "Climate Change and Energy".

Tropospheric aerosol particles have often been described and represented in models in a simplistic way considering them as non-volatile and chemically inert. Such assumptions were recently been challenged by frontline research, according to which volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) form a system that evolves in the atmosphere by chemical and dynamical processing. A current key issue concern in the physico-chemistry of atmospheric organic particulate matter is that the models based on available parameterizations from laboratory studies strongly underestimate SOA and do not adequately account for particle growth as it is observed in the atmosphere. The difference between ambient and modeled SOA concentrations clearly suggests that other significant SOA sources have not yet been identified and characterized. Important efforts were consequently made to explain and close this gap. For instance, it was shown that gaseous glyoxal, which was previously considered as too volatile to noticeably partition into the particulate phase, could significantly contribute to SOA mass through multiphase chemistry. Glyoxal, and other small dicarbonyls are formed in large amounts during VOC oxidation. Condensed phase sinks for these gases are indeed able to explain an important part of the missing SOA mass in models, often addressed as aqSOA. However, observations imply that there are still large uncertainties about the tropospheric SOA formation – conventional aqSOA apparently cannot explain all missing SOA. Furthermore, multiphase processes have also been shown to produce light absorbing compounds in the particle phase. The formation of such light absorbing species could induce new photochemical processes within the aerosol particles and/or at the gas/particle interface. A significant body of literature on photo-induced charge or energy transfer in organic molecules from other fields of science exists. Such organic molecules are aromatics, substituted carbonyls and/or nitrogen containing compounds – all ubiquitous in tropospheric aerosols. Therefore, while aquatic photochemistry has recognized several of these processes that accelerate degradation of dissolved organic matter, only little is known about such processes in/on atmospheric particles. Therefore, within PHOTOSOA it is suggested to study photosensitization in the troposphere as it may play a significant role in SOA formation and ageing. Such photosensitization may introduce new chemical pathways so far unconsidered impacting both the atmospheric chemical composition and can thus contribute to close the current SOA underestimation. This project aims at tackling such issues by combining different laboratory based activities focusing on the chemistry of triplet state compounds of relevant photosensitizers, in various phases and their role in SOA processing. Clearly, frontline basic research studies on such processes are needed in order to be able to assess their importance.

As the only airborne cloud research platform holder in Eastern Europe, INCAS is in the perfect position to be a well-known R&D organisation that obtain urgently needed data sets, process and interpret them in order to improve future climate projections. However, to date, a lack of presenting these capabilities has left INCAS too little known in the cloud research community and therefore, underutilized research partner with excellent and very useful facilities. Through the BRACE-MY project, INCAS team will obtain the required skills and an additional equipment needed to complement their research capabilities with state-of-the art aerosol sampling techniques. The foreseen research, conducted in conjunction with strong twinning activities will transfer the skills required for INCAS to perform aerosol-cloud interaction research and elevate its reputation to that of a leader in the cloud and aerosol community. This will be achieved by using a “learning by doing” approach to transfer the best practices for conducting research, disseminating results and educating young scientists from the world-class project partners to INCAS. In particular, this will include: the development of an ice nucleating particle counter based on a state-of-the-art aerosol sampling system provided by a project partner, conducting research flights, publishing and presenting research results within internationally recognized platforms, organizing and lecturing at summer schools designed for upcoming researcher in the field and gaining the managerial skills required to become a recognized partner for aerosol and cloud microphysics research. The project partners have been selected to ensure that all of the objectives are guided by leaders in the field of aerosol and cloud research and acting as a research provider. Therefore, BRACE-MY will give INCAS, a research institute in a “widening country”, the opportunity to elevate itself to an internationally recognized cloud and aerosol research institute.

Chemical processes in clouds have been suggested to contribute substantially to organic aerosol particle mass since a long time. Recent evidence from the HCCT-2010 field study and the CUMULUS chamber study suggest that this organic mass production can be substantial and depends on the concentration of available organic precursor compounds in the gas phase. However, considerable uncertainties exist, e.g. with regards to the nature of the resulting aerosol particles which might be metastable and loose at least part of their OM content during the cloud droplet evaporation. Hence, PARAMOUNT is aimed at the investigation of cloud processes which are able to process organic constituents and produce organic aerosol particle mass. The project will focus on the multiphase chemistry of very relevant polyfunctional precursors such as polyfunctional carbonyls and acids. With these precursors, a combination of aqueous-phase laboratory and CESAM chamber studies will be undertaken to examine the multiphase cloud processing. The planned aqueous-phase laboratory studies will lay the groundwork with regard to kinetics and mechanism of the multiphase processing of the mentioned compounds. The suggested CESAM chamber experiments, which are central in PARAMOUNT will mainly focus on studying the organic mass production by the chemical in-cloud processing of these compounds one by one, grouped or with mixtures with all of them. The planned chamber studies will use different seeds and oxidant precursors to examine the organic mass production under different environmental and diurnal conditions. The organic mass increases during the cloud episodes will be investigated. Besides the organic mass formation, the partitioning of organic compounds under cloud conditions should be studied to evaluate possible enrichments of organic carbonyl compounds observed during the cloud field campaign HCCT-2010. The organic aerosol fraction will be analysed on-line by two Aerosol Mass Spectrometer instruments and the processing of the interstitial gas phase and the phase partitioning will be investigated by PTR-MS and the use of a mini CVI (counter virtual impactor) followed by offline analysis. Finally, the performed CESAM experiments are being modelled with the complex multiphase chemistry mechanism MCM/CAPRAM. The multiphase modelling will be performed to both validate the mechanism and support the interpretation of the chamber experiments. Overall, the proposed project PARAMOUNT will be a scientific breakthrough for understanding of in-cloud processes clarifying the role of clouds for atmospheric organic aerosol mass production.

The proposed CoE envisions to upgrade the existing ERATOSTHENES Centre of the Cyprus University of Technology into an inspiring environment for conducting basic and applied research and innovation in the areas of the integrated use of remote sensing and space-based techniques for monitoring the environment. Earth Observation is a must to better observe, understand, protect, monitor, and predict environmental parameters in land, water and air. Earth observation includes, among others, technological solutions including satellite observation, navigation and positioning systems. Satellite observation and remote sensing is the major focal point of the Centre and in the proposed CoE will be used in an integrated manner with other techniques and geospatial tools. Earth observation data are the key factors in Earth environmental programs in order to assess the current information of the environment, inform models, understand relationships among Earth processes, support decision making e.g., toward sustainability and involve stakeholders more effectively in environment decision-making. Earth observation has, so far, made sustainability a reality and it will continue to do so as more research is continuously done and technology improves. Climate change, air and water quality, natural hazards, floods, earthquakes, fires, erosion, landslides and other phenomena are some of the factors that need to be taken into consideration in several environmental studies, both at a national as well as at a regional level. Indeed, Cyprus with its unique geographical position, can support satellite Earth Observation programmes in these areas, as well as their respective calibration and validation aspects. The project is fully aligned with the Smart Specialization Strategy of Cyprus (S3Cy) in many areas, significantly enhancing the impact of the targeted regional and national investments, namely, Environment and ICT, as explained below.