Abstract

Cyprus is a central location of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, a region with a very high anthropogenic pressure (population of about 400 million) affected by dust storms, dryness, heat extremes and unparalleled air pollution. Air pollution, and more particularly particulate matter (PM), plays here a crucial role in regional climate (temperature, precipitation) and has also major adverse health effects. Approximately 400 premature deaths and 8,000 years of life lost per year are attributable to PM in Cyprus. This will have considerable environmental, economic and health impacts that need to be assessed in order to implement efficient national mitigation strategies.

Important efforts have been paid in the recent years by the Cyprus Institute to enhance the air quality monitoring capacities of Cyprus through the development of new facilities such as the “Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory”, the “Facility for Chemical Analyses”, and the upgrade of the “Unmanned System Research Laboratory”. Being part of international networks, these facilities provide new insights on the natural versus human-made sources of air pollution and on the local versus regional origin of this pollution. This presentation will provide a comprehensive summary of the most important scientific results obtained by these facilities. It will also highlight the CyI development strategy of air quality research activities in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region.

About the Speaker

Prof. J. Sciare is the director of the Energy Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of the Cyprus Institute (CyI). His main expertise covers the experimental characterization of atmospheric aerosols; addressing issues related their impacts on air quality, health and climate. He has received a Ph-D in atmospheric chemistry and physics from Paris VII University in 2000 with a dissertation on the “Biogeochemical cycle of dimethylsulfide in the Austral Ocean”.

Following a post-doctoral position at the Max Planck of Chemistry in Mainz (Germany) in 2000-2001 on the measurement of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) in various environments, J. Sciare has obtained a full permanent position in CNRS end of 2001 at LSCE and became CNRS Research Director in 2013, leading an atmospheric chemistry group of 20 persons from mid-2012 to mid-2014. Since mid-2014, J. Sciare is a full-time professor at the Cyprus Institute.

J. Sciare is currently leading the development of several major CyI research infrastructure such as : 1) the Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory (CAO) for long term observations of key atmospheric pollutants in Cyprus at, 2) the Unmanned System Research Laboratory (USRL) for the development of an unparalleled fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles dedicated to atmospheric research studies, and 3) the Facility for Chemical Analyses (FCA) for the speciation of trace species in ambient gases and aerosols.

J. Sciare is (co-)author of more than 110 international refereed publications (H-index 34) and more than 150 presentations at international conferences devoted to atmospheric chemistry and physics.

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