ACTRIS provides high-quality data on short-lived components of the atmosphere. The data quality assurance/quality control procedures of these components are provided by the respective Topical Centres and the Data Centre (DC). This includes standard operation procedures and guidelines for measurements, instrument calibrations, and data processing. The Topical Centres are the hubs of technical expertise in their field and are responsible for defining the quality criteria required for the measurements. The quality criteria are, whenever feasible, based on existing standards and/or on scientific literature. The quality criteria are or will be publicly available at the respective Topical Centre website for the needs of data providers, data users and instrument manufacturers. Besides that, also calibration procedures, target uncertainties, and evaluation criteria to conclude the calibration results are to be well documented and available at the respective Topical Centre.
As the ACTRIS requirements for each instrument type are openly available, the manufacturers can check whether their instruments are ACTRIS compliant. Furthermore, the manufacturers are encouraged to demonstrate the compliance of their instruments by sending the instrument to the respective Topical Centre for an instrument performance workshop. The cost of this ACTRIS service is to be paid by the manufacturer unless otherwise agreed. Each Topical Centre shall keep, if applicable, a list of instruments (manufacturer and model) that have been demonstrated to be compliant with the ACTRIS requirements. This list of compliant instruments is provided upon request by the Topical Centre. No information on instruments that did not pass the performance criteria or have not been tested is to be included on the list of compliant instruments. As ACTRIS is not a certification organization, no specific certificate beyond the normal intercomparison or test report is sent to the manufacturer.
The following standard statement can be used by manufacturers for instruments that have been tested to be ACTRIS-compliant:
“The model [instrument model] by [instrument manufacturer] has been tested by ACTRIS to meet the ACTRIS requirements for measuring [parameters from the test report] ”
The manufacturers are allowed to use the standard ACTRIS logo (black, white, or coloured) linked to the instruments, stating compliance. The manufacturers, however, are not entitled to modify the logo or use it in other contexts.
ACTRIS Statement on the List of Compliant Instruments
