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NEWS FROM EUROTRAC-2, AND A QUESTION TO YOU!!

Peter Builtjes,TNO, The Netherlands

The Eurotrac-2 project, which is an Eureka-project on the transport and chemical transformation of environmentally relevant trace constituents in the troposphere over Europe is currently very active in an attempt to review and integrate all the results obtained uptill now. The first Eurotrac project started in 1986, and ended in 1995, this second phase was initiated in 1996 and will be finalised by the end of 2002.

Eurotrac presently comprises more than 350 research groups from 30 European countries, organised in 14 subprojetcs. The project is basically a bottom-up project where people come and work together on a voluntarily basis. It has a small scientific secretariat in Munchen which is mainly funded by the German government as well as by the other participating governments. Eurotrac is a scientific project with an open view towards policy application. Every second year a very well attended symposium is held in Garmisch Partenkirchen. The next one will be held March 11-15, 2002. The announcement can be found in this newsletter calendar. See also http://www.gsf.de/eurotrac for more detailed information.

As mentioned, Eurotrac-2 is in its final phase, and work is on the way to synthesise and integrate the results. The focus will be on 5 themes: fluxes to and from the surface, urban air quality, photo-oxidant formation, global and regional ozone budget and aerosol and clouds. These themes will also form the basis for the 2000 symposium.

The Eurotrac 'platform' or 'network' has played a major role in European tropospheric atmospheric chemistry research over the last 15 years. Currently discussions have started whether, and in which way and for which subjects a kind of Eurotrac should be continued after 2002. The discussion is in its initial phase. I would appreciate it very much to hear any ideas about such a continuation and its form from the EURASAP-members. All creactive ideas are welcome, please send them to me!!

       
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