About the Center

CAMS is envisioned as a nation-wide calibration and measurement science center for aerosol instruments, coordinating the development and application of best practices in instrument operation and calibration, and providing traceable measurement services to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, its users, research organizations, and any other interested parties, to facilitate high-quality and internally consistent measurement networks. More...

Objectives

• Establish and maintain reference instrumentation for key aerosol measurements such as particle number concentration and size.
• Provide a research facility for characterization of aerosol properties using cutting-edge instrumentation
• Provide a method for connecting ARM aerosol measurements and calibrations to international standards

CAMS is working together with the World Calibration Centre for Aerosol Physics (WCCAP) in developing the CAMS facilities and operations. WCCAP has 20+ years of experience in operating an aerosol instrumentation calibration facility in Europe and has guided development of standards and best practices now accepted in the wider aerosol community.

CAMS and the WCCAP are both part of the European Commission Horizon CARGO-ACT (Cooperation and AgReements enhancing Global interOperability for Aerosol, Cloud and Trace gas research infrastructures) project, which goal is to deliver a clear roadmap for sustainable global cooperation between key organizations in Europe (ACTRIS, Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure) and in the United States (ARM, NOAA, NASA).

The collaboration with the WCCAP in the context of CARGO-ACT will contribute to align instrument calibration procedures between the two facilities where applicable and will allow for traceability of aerosol measurements between US and EU via joined calibration and intercomparison workshops.