CARS (Centre for Aerosol Remote Sensing)

CARS (Centre for Aerosol Remote Sensing)  
The mission of CARS is to provide operational support to ACTRIS National Facilities utilizing instrumentation for aerosol remote sensing:  
High-power aerosol lidars  
Automatic low-power lidars and ceilometers  
Automatic sun/sky/polarized/lunar photometers  
Additionally, CARS offers specialized services for the above instruments and related ACTRIS variables to various types of ACTRIS users, including academia, business, industry, and public services.  
CARS also offers specialized services to ACTRIS users:  
Training and consultancy for the establishment and management of aerosol remote sensing stations  
Measurement and data procedures and tools for QA/QC of lidar and photometer measurements  
Measurement and data quality monitoring, including photometer calibration, characterization of lidar optical blocks, direct comparison with reference systems, support for debugging, upgrading, and optimizing instruments. 
ACTRIS Centre for Aerosol Remote Sensing is organized in 8 Units which are grouped in 3 clusters, one cluster for each measurement technique. The Units are hosted by 7 research institutions, located in 5 countries: Romania, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. In Italy, CNR-IMAA is hosting one Unit which is responsible for the QA/QC of the aerosol high-power lidar measurements (CARS-AHL-CNR). 
 
CARS webpage: https://www.actris.eu/topical-centre/cars