IAP RAS GEOPOLISAT

A. M. Obukhov Inst­itute of Atmo­sphe­ric Physics, Russian Academy of Scie­nces Geop­hysi­cal Site for Atmo­sphe­ric Rese­arch and its Inte­ract­ion with the Earth's Surface (GEOP­OLI­SAT) inte­gra­tes the meas­uring sites of the A. M. Obukhov Inst­itute of Atmo­sphe­ric Physics of the Russian Academy of Scie­nces, esta­blis­hed on the basis of the Inst­itute's exis­ting rese­arch stat­ions with the aim of obse­rving and anal­yzing atmo­sphe­ric comp­osit­ion and dyna­mics. The sites are located in regions with diverse phys­ical and geog­raph­ical char­acte­rist­ics and possess suff­icie­ntly long-term obse­rvat­ion series. In part­icu­lar, studies of gaseous impu­rity content vari­ati­ons have been cond­ucted at the Zven­igo­rod Scie­nti­fic Station (ZSS) since 1970 and are the longest cont­inu­ous meas­urem­ents of their kind in the world. A station for moni­tor­ing trop­osph­eric aerosol, part of the global AERONET network, has been esta­blis­hed at ZSS. Cont­inu­ous soun­ding of the upper atmo­sph­ere is carried out, and the char­acte­rist­ics of wave prop­agat­ion in the atmo­sph­ere and its turb­ulent stru­cture are inve­stig­ated.

The unique loca­tion of the Kisl­ovo­dsk High-Moun­tain Scie­nti­fic Station (KHMSS) allows for the study of the back­gro­und state of the atmo­sph­ere. A series of total ozone column meas­urem­ents was init­iated in 1978, enab­ling the station to join the inte­rnat­ional network of ozon­omet­ric meas­urem­ents. The meas­urem­ent complex in Kisl­ovo­dsk coll­ects info­rmat­ion on the aerosol and gas comp­osit­ion of the atmo­sph­ere in the resort region of the Cauc­asian Mineral Waters.

The Tsim­lya­nsk Scie­nti­fic Station (TSS) was esta­blis­hed in 1955 as a spec­iali­zed site for the study of atmo­sphe­ric turb­ule­nce. The comb­inat­ion of clim­atic cond­iti­ons and the nature of the unde­rly­ing surface creates the cond­iti­ons nece­ssary for refe­rence meas­urem­ents of the turb­ulent stru­cture of the atmo­sph­ere and the prop­agat­ion of waves of various scales. In recent years, using unique inst­rume­ntat­ion deve­loped at the Inst­itute, the station has cond­ucted unpa­rall­eled expe­rime­nts to study the prop­ert­ies of turb­ulent heli­city—a char­acte­ris­tic of turb­ule­nce whose account is crucial for mode­ling and fore­cast­ing crit­ical atmo­sphe­ric phen­omena; these were the first such expe­rime­nts in the world.

The site on the roof of the IAP RAS buil­ding in central Moscow allows for the study of the climate and stru­cture of a mega­city's atmo­sph­ere. The depl­oym­ent of iden­tical meas­uring systems at IAP RAS and the Zven­igo­rod Scie­nti­fic Station enables the asse­ssm­ent of the degree of the city's infl­uence on the comp­osit­ion and stru­cture of the atmo­sph­ere.

At three sites (ZSS, TSS, and Moscow center), acou­stic loca­tors—sodars—deve­loped at IAP RAS are oper­atio­nal, meas­uring the vert­ical stru­cture of the atmo­sph­ere. More­over, in Moscow and Zven­igo­rod, meas­urem­ents have been cond­ucted cont­inuo­usly for over 10 years.

The dive­rsity of climate zones and land­sca­pes makes the Geop­hysi­cal Site a conv­eni­ent plat­form for cond­uct­ing sub-sate­llite expe­rime­nts and vali­dat­ing sate­llite data. The meas­uring equi­pment can also be used for short-term meas­urem­ent camp­aigns to observe conc­entr­ati­ons of minor gaseous and aerosol impu­rit­ies, as well as the stru­cture and dyna­mics of the atmo­sph­ere under various land­scape and seas­onal cond­iti­ons, incl­uding on mobile obse­rvat­ion plat­forms (auto­mob­ile, river/sea vessel, etc.).

All IAP RAS meas­uring sites possess the logi­sti­cal capa­bili­ties to conduct comp­rehe­nsive seas­onal expe­diti­onary rese­arch with the part­icip­ation of inte­res­ted scie­nti­fic orga­niza­tions. An exte­nsive infr­astr­uct­ure supp­orts expe­rime­ntal obse­rvat­ions.