A £7.6m (US$9.6m) investment from the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) spread over the next seven years will enable the Atmospheric Measurement and Observation Facility (AMOF) to provide improved support for making measurements of the atmosphere.
The funding means AMOF will soon be offering new instrumentation and data products, taking steps to enhance the user journey, and offering training for skills development.
The AMOF was established in April 2020, and its capability in atmospheric observations underpins the latest weather, climate and air pollution research, and spans a range of research disciplines, applications and collaborations.
As part of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), AMOF provides a joined-up service for the UK’s atmospheric science community. AMOF’s experts help plan and make measurements with mobile instruments, operate laboratories and observatories, offer data quality checks, and signpost users to open-access data.
Offering access to 40 different types of mobile instruments, four unique laboratories, three specialized observatories, a wealth of archived and live-streamed observation data, and the opportunity to host scientific kit from other organizations – AMOF has welcomed applications to use the facility from all parts of the scientific community, including commercial users.
On NERC’s backing of AMOF’s future, Dr Barbara Brooks, scientific services and facilities director at NCAS, said, “Over the next seven years we have a fantastic opportunity to work collaboratively with the science community to achieve bespoke solutions for observing the atmosphere. This investment by NERC will enable us to provide continued and improved support for UK scientists. We are here to help the users of AMOF to collect data that will help to address environmental challenges – from forecasting droughts and periods of poor air quality to modeling robust projections of climate change and measuring vehicle exhaust emissions. We are committed to providing support to not only researchers, but industry professionals too, and over the next seven years we are upping our efforts to enable excellent atmospheric science in the UK and internationally.”
To find out more about NERC’s latest developments, click here.
