Col Margherita (2513 m asl) is a mountain crossing the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto in north-east Italy. It is located on the South-eastern side of the Alps, between the emission sources of the Po Valley basin, one of the most populated regions with the highest air pollution levels in Southern Europe, and the industrial areas of North-eastern Europe. Col Margherita is on the highest peak within a 4 km radius, except for a summit that is 200 m higher, 3.3 km away in the east-west direction.
Investigate the chemical composition of atmospheric aerosol transported by atmospheric processes at different scales, as driven by local boundary-layer processes and/or by large-scale atmospheric patterns
The campaign integrated the permanent meteorological station and high-altitude atmospheric compound sampler at the top of Col Margherita with pointwise instruments and remote sensing profilers in the valley at Passo Valles to couple the valley-top atmospheric characteristics and assess the local and non-local transport of atmospheric constituents.
Duration: 23 July 2024 - 29 October 2024
The instrumentation comprises two main sites:
The Col Margherita Atmospheric Observatory (2543 m asl), which is a Global Atmospheric Watch of the World Meteorological Organization (GAW-WMO) Regional Station (ID: MRG) established in October 2012. It monitors weather parameters alongside atmospheric aerosol and mercury. A low-volume aerosol sampler, equipped with a sequential sampler for an automatic filter change, is used to determine PM10 mass concentration and to perform a chemical characterization of atmospheric particulate. The concentration of mercury in the air is measured using a Tekran (Model 2537B) instrument following the GMOS SOP, 2011, protocol.
The Passo Valles cluster of instruments for pointwise and distributed measurements of meteorological parameters and pollutant concentrations: this includes a Weather Station, a Disdrometer OTT Parsivel for precipitation detailing, a Wind lidar WINDCUBE 100s and a customized Raman lidar to profile the wind velocity, air temperature, and water vapour