The Municipality of Penteli represents the center of efforts of the EIFFEL H2020 Project’s Pilot on Urban Sustainability.

APCG, at ICP - AGIR EU Asia Final Conference, that was organized during 3-4 April 2023 in Incheon, Republic of Korea

Two dedicated webinars -for the ICLEI-Europe Network and for Polish stakeholders- raised awareness of public authorities dealing with the quality of atmosphere, for the ATMO-ACCESS Trans National Access possibilities.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our new paper which proposes a number of novel methodologies for localizing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.6.2 via Earth observation, modelling applications, and harmonized city definitions.

The final FIRE Forum 2023 event took place online from 1st until the 3rd of February.

The kick off meeting of our new Horizon Europe project Urban ReLeaf was held in Vienna on 25-27 January 2023. The 3 day event was attended by Giorgos Grivas and Evangelos Gerasopoulos on behalf of APCG, who contributed actively to the planning of the first year of implementation of project.

An important contribution of APCG to the RI-URBANS project and community is a tool to create localized emission inventories over European cities.

The 2022 EuroGEO Workshop (EGW2022, 7-9 December) was concluded in Athens, Greece, few days ago!

“MemCCSea Final Dissemination & Networking Event”

APCG in the 1st science meeting of RI-URBANS project, which is held in Barcelona, on 19 and 20 October.

Members of APCG and other NOA researchers were invited at the 18^th Hellenic Inter-municipal conference, Riviera Coast, Athens, 6-8 Oct, 2022, organized by the Network of Healthy Cities (ΕΔΔΥΠΠΥ).

A 3-day event of insightful exchange of ideas establishing the resilience framework of ARSINOE project took place at Tenerife, Canarias Islands from 3 to 6 October 2022. Among the various and interesting presentations, the contribution of APCG group, as a dedicated partner at the Athens case study was also highlighted.

RI URBANS green deal project in which APCG serves very acting roles in measurements modeling as well as stakeholders' engagement, just been released its new video on air pollution impact on health.

IAC 2022 took place between 4-9 September at the Athens Concert Hall. Renowned scientists from all over the world are participating at the event. APCG will be present with interesting presentations and posters.

During EXPANDEO and the FIRE FORUM 2022, focusing on “Where the market meets - Unlocking the full potential of Earth Observation in Europe”, APCG was represented by Dr. Evangelos Gerasopoulos who was invited as a panelist in two sessions.

The first Working Group meeting of ATMO-ACCESS Task 6.4 took place on June, 16, 2022. The aim of this meeting was to co-design the forth-coming trans-national access to the research facilities of ATMO-ACCESS by public authorities.

During the e-shape webinar on 6 June 2022 Dr. Eleni Athanasopoulou presented our Health Surveillance Air Quality Pilot (HSAQ, e-shape) “S2-P3: EO-based pollution-health risks profiling in the urban environment”

In May’s APCG Meeting, we had a very interesting and productive discussion fed by presentations from members of our group.

An interactive, user-friendly, online GIS platform to monitor SDG Indicator 11.6.2 was presented during the EUROGEO conference, in Lesvos 2022, by our PhD candidate Nasia Kakouri.

APCG participates in the first ARSINOE training workshop in Athens on the 17^th of May.

APCG at the Living Planet Symposium 2022 - Taking the pulse from our planet to space

The 1st ACTRIS Science Conference took place during May 11-13, 2022, with the participation of several members of APCG.

APCG and the Greek GEO Office played a key coordinating role in this year’s GEO Symposium

We wish to all Happy Easter!

Warm wishes for health and happy moments with your families!

APCG, the coordinator of the Health Surveillance Air Quality [HSAQ] of the e-Shape H2020 project, organized an online interactive webinar on Friday April 1st 2022, to demonstrate its newly developed online platform "TEASER". 

At our regular March group meeting, we welcomed new members of the group and hosted students who worked with us during their diplomas. 

Very proud to present our concluding paper "Earth observation: An integral part of a smart and sustainable city" in the Journal of Environmental Science & Policy which advocates for the potential of EO to address urban environmental pressures and suggests 6 foundational prerequisites.

We participate actively with Dr. Eleni Athanasopoulou, in the first hybrid meeting of ATMO-ACCESS project taking place on the 3rd and 4th of March in Toulouse, France.

On the occasion of the completion of the EMISSION project within the "Research-Create-Innovate" Action, Dr. E. Gerasopoulos was featured in Omicron 3 broadcast at ERT3 channel. 

APCG celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022!

Dr. Despoina Paraskevopoulou and Dr. Panagiotis Kosmopoulos have launched as Guest Editors a Special Issue in Toxics journal!

Congratulation to our PhD candidate Nasia Kakouri for her success in receiving a scholarship from the
Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI). 

A new publication from our collaborator Dimitris Mitsos, in the frame of his diploma thesis in MSc CultTech at the Department of History, Archaeology and Cultural Resources Management of the University of the Peloponnese. Dimitris is currently a PhD candidate at the same department, in collaboration with APCG.

During the “PANACEA Winter 2021-2022 Campaign”, which will take place from 6th of December 2021 to 10th of January 2022 at the city of Ioannina-Greece, members of APCG contribute to the high resolution measurements of particulate and gaseous compounds related to wood burning.

We wish to all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Warm wishes for health and happy moments with your families!

NOA was invited to demonstrate the EU H2020 e-shape Pilot 2.3 "EO-based pollution-health risks profiling in the urban environment" to university students. APCG members delivered two seminars, the first on air quality monitoring through low-cost networks in large metropolitan areas and the second on urban air pollution mapping towards protecting human health.

On the 15th of December, a meeting of significant importance was held between the National Observatory of Athens and the Municipality of Penteli (Athens-Greece), elevating synergy between the two entities within the Sustainable urban development Pilot of the EIFFEL EU project.

In today’s APCG Meeting, we had a very interesting and productive discussion fed by presentations from two new members of our group.

In Brussels on 2 November 2021, the Greek Government through the Coordination Unit of the Greek Initiative at UN level for the protection of cultural and natural heritage from climate impacts. 

ARSINOE is a 39-partner HORIZON 2020 Green Deal Call project, which draws up resilience ecosystem for climate change adaptation solutions. ARSINOE approach contains 9 widely varied show cases to ensure applicability, replicability, potential and efficacy.

We are back with our first meeting in autumn and for the new academic year, with massive participation from all team members!

The overarching objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate applications that advance the use of Earth Observation1 data in the European Statistical System.

We are excited and proud to be part of the new Green Deal project, RI-URBANS, which stands for “Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial Areas”.

Several members of the APCG have participated in the 15th international conference on Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics, COMECAP 2021, that was held in Ioannina last week.
Two presentations were delivered by Nasia Kakouri and Katerina Bougiatioti, while posters were presented by Eleni Athanasopoulou, Eleni Liakakou, Giorgos Grivas and Myrto Gratsea.

“We do not have the luxury of first losing our cultural property and then dealing with the situation. We must take action now “, says Dr. Evangelos Gerasopoulos, director of the Greek Geo Office (GEO). “A few years ago, widespread fires in Greece reached the gates of the archeological site of Olympia, making us realize how threatening such extreme events can be for ancient monuments”.

APCG, responsible for the operation of the PANACEA National Research Infrastructure network of sensors in the Region of Attica, has been informing the Governor and the citizens, on a daily basis through press releases and social media, about the pollution burden caused by the fires in Attica. The fire was ignited on August 3 and kept burning for almost a week.

The Greek GEO Office (GGO) on 1-2 July 2021 participated in the event organized by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and ECMWF presenting the GEO Community Activity “Urban Heritage Climate Observatory” (UHCO) and discussing the Cultural and Natural Heritage community needs and requirements related to C3S products and services.

New position on Atmospheric Modeling at APCG. If you think you are skilled and interested in joining us, please check the details immediately!

The Geo Symposium 2021 has ended!

A lot of interesting presentations and productive discussions were realized in parallel sessions.

The presence of APCG and the Greek GEO Office was more than noticed!

As Europe takes a breather after a strenuous COVID winter and football is back on the menu, a different kind of kick-off took place on June 22-23. The Eiffel project officially commenced with a very solid line-up of 19 partners, featuring public authorities, SMEs, Universities and Research Institutes. The main goal of the project is to reveal the strength of Earth Observation and the GEOSS portal in particular, in providing unique information for building climate change (CC) adaptation & mitigation applications.

APCG, exploiting the experience gained from the implementation of the SMURBS Smart Cities H2020 project, had a strong presence during the first FIRE Forum, hosted at the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC)’s annual EXPANDEO conference on 16 June 2021.

Ιn our June meeting, the APCG group was informed about the new community activity of GEO, namely the Urban Heritage Climate Observatory (UCHO) that is co-lead by the Greek GEO Office. Dr Nefta Votsi presented the structure, objectives and future planning  and the group brain-stormed on new activities, funding and contribution it can offer to support this Greek initiative.

APCG contributed greatly to public information with its constant provision of data on Air Quality conditions over Athens as a result of extended wild-fire that burned for three consecutive days in Corinth. The measurement data and maps from the dense sensor network of the National Research Infrastructure PANACEA were used to inform the competent authorities and the public and were widely disseminated through radio, television and the press.

The ATMO-ACCESS (Sustainable Access to Atmospheric Research Facilities) kick off meeting, coordinated by the French National Research Centre (CNRS) in the frame of H2020 programme of the European Commission, takes place virtually on 10-12 May 2021.

The launch event of the Urban Heritage Climate Observatory (UHCO), the new GEO Community Activity, coordinated by the Greek GEO Office and UNESCO World Heritage Cities, was completed with absolute success on Monday, 26 April 2021.

In our April meeting, a very interesting and informative presentation, was delivered by Dr. Katerina Bugiatioti on the climate crisis, who presented to us APCG mesaurements of greenhouse gases in Athens.

Our team proudly presents the aerial view of the Thissio Actinometric Station in this video.

In our March meeting, a very interesting and rich to information and progress presentation was delivered by Dr. Panagiotis Kosmopoulos on the renewable energy applications of the group.

The Greek Group of Earth Observation Office (GGO) on 9 March 2021 participated in this interdisciplinary event entitled “Cultural Heritage and Climate Change” presenting the Community Activity “Urban Heritage Climate Observatory” and discussing the management of the evolving challenges of Cultural Heritage protection.

The first APCG meeting for 2021 took place on February 11, with a presentation delivered by D. Karagiannis entitled “The Atmospheric Monitoring component of the INFRASTRESS project".

A novel service was officially released in summer 2020 in support to the distributed solar plant energy production management, electricity handling entities and smart grid operations in Europe and North Africa.

New paper with the participation of APCG members focusing on "Regional New Particle Formation over the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East".

During our last meeting for 2020, Dr. Anastasia Panopoulou presented very interested results from her work on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), including those obtained during her PhD, and unfolded future planning together with Dr. Eleni Liakakou.

A novel study realized by our group introducing a short-term forecasting system that is capable of calculating solar energy in large-scale exploiting “Meteosat”, a second generation (MSG) satellite.

In our November meeting we had a very interesting and rich to information and progress presentation by Dr. Panagiotis Raptis which was followed by a very constructive discussion.

The two-day annual meeting of SMURBS has been accomplished with GREAT success!
Representatives from all partners discussed about the current status of the project and our future planning. 

The lockdown measures implemented worldwide to slow the spread of the COVID–19The lockdown measures implemented worldwide to slow the spread of the COVID–19pandemic have allowed for a unique real–world experiment, regarding the impacts of drasticemission cutbacks on urban air quality. 

Two invited talks by members of APCG in the "Space for cities: from innovation to operation" workshop organized by EURISY. 

A first assessment of the atmospheric organic nutrients' contribution, highlighting the importance of their representation in biogeochemistry models. 

Our article on low-cost, smart AQ sensors published in Atmosphere has been selected as Editor's Choice.

An interesting interview by Prof. N. Mihalopoulos, Director of IERSD/NOA in Kathimerini, where he comments on the extreme weather events that are striking Greece and the globe during the last decades with increasing frequency, and how the new National Network for Climate Change flagship project CLIMPACT, coordinated by the National Observatory of Athens, addresses the relevant research at the national level.

The first meeting of APCG for the new academic year took place today with the participation of all its members. It has been a while since the last time, so it was a nice opportunity to catch up and discuss the new challenges ahead.

Young researchers and students from almost all atmospheric groups in Greece, as well as key-note speakers from Greece and abroad deliver a number of very interesting presentations.

 Great Greek Success!!! The Greek GEO Office, which is operated by our group, initiated in cooperation with UNESCO, a global activity within GEO titled “Earth Observations for Climate Change Impacts on World Heritage Cities”. The Community Activity was approved last week from the GEO Programme Board and has been officially included in its Working Programme, incorporating several urban cultural heritage aspects. In this initiative, more than 80 partners have already joined, originating from 24 countries and 10 international organisations. Read our article for more details.

The new research of our group demonstrates the network of low-cost, compact, particulate matter (PM) sensors which operates in Athens, the largest city in Greece, for five months now, and how it performs with respect to measurement accuracy and other external factors.

Monoterpenes and isoprene are biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) contributing significantly to the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and tropospheric ozone (O₃). Despite they are considered of biogenic origin, other emission sources might contribute to their levels in urban environments. Does it also stand for Athens? Read our article for more details.

APCG digs into the impacts of chemical weathering on Cultural Heritage (CH). Twenty-one archaeological sites in Greece were selected to study their exposure to particulate pollution, in terms of aerosol loading and chemical type, to infer on the potential impact on the structural materials (specifically stone) of the monuments, using Space-Borne Remote Sensing instruments, MODIS and CALIPSO.

In our new article the novel 3D-PSCF model was applied in Athens for the first time, providing new information regarding the vertical zones in which transport of pollutants occurs.

The 16th Recetox Summer School and SMURBS Training School 2020, that took place during the 15-19 June 2020, ended with great success!

An interesting article from member of APCG Dr. Kosmopoulos, about the photovoltaic (PV) energy production from the rooftop solar plant of the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) and the impact of clouds and aerosols on the PV energy production.

APCG research mentioned in greek newspaper article examining the decline in greenhouse gas emissions in association with climate change due to lockdown.

A recent research from the Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development demonstrates how climate will be affecting our lives in the future.

The Head of APCG Dr Evangelos Gerasopoulos, talked about how the Covid19 pandemic sets the need for a new Sustainable Development model.

APCG studies NO2 levels above Greece prior and during the Covid19 pandemic, retrieving Sentinel5P data. Interesting findings, consistent to previous reports, are published in Κόsμος.

Members of the APCG group in collaboration with PMOD/WRC (Switzerland) observed during the last days relatively low...

Our 1^st  press release on air pollution levels in Athens during the COVID-19 pandemic gained the attraction of several ...

COVID-19: 3 weeks of "stay at home" and the effects on the levels of air pollution in Athens (APCG press release, 14 April, 2020)

An interesting video on climate change and its effects on the environment and health has been created by VICE e-mag.

Members from the APCG group served as authors for a newly published article in Atmospheric research. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that long-term size distribution measurements are analyzed for new particle formation events, in a comparative way, between an urban and a regional background site in this region.