Annual ACTRIS Data QA/QC Workshop for in-situ reactive trace gases

The ACTRIS QA/QC workshop for in-situ reactive trace gases is a fixed annual meeting for the ACTRIS VOC and NOx sites. In 2021, it was for the first time officially organized by CiGas. Since its first occurrence in 2012, it has developed and is now a mandatory date every year for the CiGas community. 

*including participants from the modelling community.

** including participants from the Eurochamp community.

The meeting is the final part of the data checking process that starts with the submission of the first version of the previous years’ data set in March of each year. As such, it is a corner stone of the CiGas QA/QC concept – it provides the floor for each site to meet fellow PIs and discuss their latest data sets and possible open questions and issues not only with the TC but with the community and the DC. Besides the QA/QC aspect, it also enables exchange of expertise and training. Finally, it sets the conditions to conclude the data QA/QC process with the final submission of quality checked data to the ACTRIS data centre.
Usually, it is a two and a half day meeting back to back for VOCs and NOx, where both parts connect with a small science session and a general session. 
The 2021 workshop took place as a virtual meeting from April 20-21 with 50 participants from ACTRIS sites, future NFs, EUROCHAMP community as exploratory platforms, CiGas and the ACTRIS-DC. Besides the Data QC parts and station presentations for VOCs and NOx, a common session provided news about the CiGas status & implementation plans (Ralf TiIlmann), CiGas proposal plans and NOx SOPs (Robert Wegener), QA Tool updates (Matz Hill and Stefan Reimann), the DC data status and curation tool (Ann Mari Fjaeraa), and recent Audit results from GAW-WCC-VOC (Rainer Steinbrecher) with some time for discussion. 
The meeting concluded with a science session. It covered modelling of European gaseous pollutant COVID-19 response (Stuart Grange), the Auchencorth Moss NO2 instrument intercomparison (Christine Braban), in-situ measurements of NOx, HONO and particulate Nitrate at Cape Verde (Simone Andersen), VOCs at the station of SIRTA (Leila Simon) and in the high Arctic (Rosanna Bossi) as well as an overview about the EURAMET Project MetClimVOC (Maitane Iturrate-Garcia).
Talks and minutes of the meeting are available from the TC (ACTRIS-CiGas_Unit_leaders@posti.fmi.fi) on request and will be available online as soon as possible on the CiGas website.
Even though the VC events worked nicely in 2020 and 2021 and attracted more participants than usual, we hope to meet again in person next year … and maybe have some drinks together.