UK EMEP supersites - Auchencorth and Harwell

The UNECE Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollutants operates a number of measurement and monitoring programmes, including EMEP – the Co-operative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (see http://www.emep.int/index_facts.html).

The United Kingdom contribution to the EMEP monitoring strategy is based on the creation of two Level II ‘supersites’, one in the north of the UK and one in the south, at which additional measurements are made to qualify as an EMEP Level III site. Data from these sites at hourly or daily frequency are supplemented by long-term integrating measurements from existing Defra-funded monitoring networks across the UK (http://www.nilu.no/projects/ccc/network/index.html). The northern site is identified as Auchencorth Moss in eastern Scotland (UK OS grid reference NT220562) which has been used by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology for several years as an intensive monitoring site for trace gas and particle concentrations and fluxes. The site is based in an area of upland deep peat, with heather and grass cover, and has an extensive fetch to the south-west. The southern site is identified as Harwell, in Oxfordshire, operated by AEA Technology over many years for sampling trace gases and aerosols.

Auchencorth 'Super Site'