The Demonstration Network Of ground-based Remote Sensing observations (NORS) is a new EU Framework 7 R&D project in support of the GMES Atmospheric Service (GAS) that began on November 1, 2011 and will run for 33 months.
The project is built around 4 NDACC pilot stations (Ny Alesund, the Alps: (Bern, Jungfraujoch, and Observatoire de Haute Provence), Izana, and Reunion Island) and 4 NDACC remote sensing techniques for studying atmospheric composition (microwave, differential lidar, and infrared, and UV/Visible differential optical absorption spectrometry). NORS focuses on a limited number of target species in the troposphere and the stratosphere: Ozone, CO, CH4, NO2, HCHO and aerosol extinction. The general objective of the project is to perform the required research and development necessary to optimize NDACC data products to support quality assessments of the future GAS.
One of the more specific objectives is to achieve data submission to the NDACC database with a maximum delay of 1 month from data acquisition, in the GEOMS HDF file format, one of the standard data file formats in the NDACC database.
If these rapid delivery data are of less quality than the standard verified NDACC data or if the data file is less complete (e.g., missing uncertainty estimates), then the data must be identified as 'RD' in the DATA_QUALITY attribute of the data file; the data provider will submit a standard verified version of the same data later on.
The 'RD'-data will show up in the newly created RD directory on the NDACC ftp public data server and will be removed by the data provider as soon as the standard verified data become available. The latter will appear on the NDACC public database ftp server as usual in the corresponding station directories.
The existence of the RD directory is a new feature of the NDACC database that has been implemented for the purpose of NORS but that is available to all NDACC PIs who want to use this option. The purposes of the RD directory are (1) to enable the data providers to rapidly submit data that are suitable for or first-look purposes - but that may require a further quality-control before being submitted to the regular station data, and (2), to make the quality distinction clearly visible to the users of the data. Further inquiries on the use of this option should be directed to the NDACC Database Administrator.