The atmospheric spectroscopy group from the Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES) lab at ULB has a strong expertise on the sounding of atmospheric composition from satellites. The group develops and maintains state-of-the-art radiative transfer software, which is used along with inverse methods to retrieve atmospheric trace gas concentrations and aerosol properties. The research outcomes, presented in numerous articles at the forefront of the field (around 300 publications in the last 15 years), have contributed to demonstrate the potential of thermal infrared atmospheric sounding to monitor, understand and forecast atmospheric processes at various spatial and temporal scales. In particular, the group is at the forefront with respect to NH3 satellite measurements (production of the first world map of NH3, identification of hotpots, investigation of short and long term temporal variability including trends, etc.) and to the issues related to the perturbed nitrogen cycle.
The expertise of the group in relation to the monitoring of reactive nitrogen compounds is recognized internationally, which is testified by the group’s involvement in several European projects in the last ten years. The group maintains an extensive network of collaborations with e.g. the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology (CEH: M.A. Sutton, S. Reis, M. Vieno), the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (Harvard: D. Jacob), the Atmospheric Chemistry and Composition Group (Princeton: M. Zondlo, X. Guo), the Atmospheric Chemistry and Composition Modeling Group (MIT: C.L. Heald), and the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE: D. Hauglustaine).
Finally, as an additional illustration of its international recognition in this field, group members contribute to the preparation of the follow-up satellite missions on polar and geostationary platforms, which will form the space segment of the operational European atmosphere monitoring service for the next 25 years. It is also at the origin of the candidate Earth Explorer concept Nitrosat that would be dedicated to the mapping of NH3 and NO2 at the landscape scale.
