As part of the consortium of the ACSAF research program of the EUMETSAT organization, (AC SAF – EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Atmospheric Composition Monitoring), the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics hosted a two-day progress meeting (28 & 29 September 2022) in Thessaloniki, Greece. The meeting took place at KEDEK, a research institute established by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The aim of the meeting was to bring together senior researchers, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students, who are working in the areas of ACSAF. The speakers presented results of their research work within the project.

The ACSAF project covers both the production of atmospheric component data from the MetOp, Sentinel-4 & Sentinel-5 satellites – once the latter two are in orbit – and the certification of their quality. The ACSAF project team develops, produces, archives, validates and disseminates ozone and atmospheric chemistry products, to support the services of the EUMETSAT Member States in weather forecasting, as well as monitoring of ozone depletion, air quality and surface UV radiation. In addition, these products contribute to the implementation of the EUMETSAT strategy in environmental monitoring of the atmosphere.

The Satellite Remote Sensing Group of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics (LAP/AUTH) focuses on the analysis, validation and exploitation of space-born observations of atmospheric species. The Group is a member of the ACSAF community since 1997, in the development of the EUMETSAT O3MSAF (1997-2017) and subsequent ACSAF (2017-2027) projects and their validation activities, which comprise a variety of products and sensors, such as GOME/ERS2, GOME2 and IASI onboard MetopA, MetopB and MetopC. LAP/AUTH hosts and maintains an open-access validation site for EUMETSAT ACSAF satellite total ozone and ozone profile products.