Mission Statement

The sites’ identity is centred on delivering world class research and teaching in our 3 main mission areas:

The site is a part of a number of international research networks including the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), the Atmospheric/Ocean Chemistry Experiment (AEROCE), World Meteorological Organisation/Global Atmospheric Watch (WMO/ GAW), Tropospheric Ozone Research (TOR, a EUROTRAC project), Budget of Ozone over the Atlantic (BOA) and the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (CMDL/NOAA) co-operative flask sampling network.

Mission 1. Long-term Time-series and baseline Trend Monitoring

The facility’s over-arching mission is to serve as a national, European, and global atmospheric observatory underpinning strategic policy goals with respect to long-term trend monitoring of Essential Climate Variables and air pollutants. This mission is achieved through the operation of continuous and comprehensive atmospheric monitoring programmes. Mace Head deploys the most sophisticated technology to monitor Essential Climate Variables and Air Pollutants including Meteorological Variables, haze, cloud and radiation parameters, long-lived greenhouse and short-lived reactive gases, and atmospheric aerosol physio-chemical and optical properties.

Mission 2. Key-process Research  

The facility’s scientific mission is to underpin fundamental research into key processes driving atmospheric composition change relating to the evolution of atmospheric composition, sources and sinks of atmospheric constituents and fundamental processes influencing air-sea exchange and biogeochemical cycling, and, ultimately, how these processes are involved in climate feedback systems. In summary, Mace Head is ideally located to address key scientific issues relating to atmospheric composition processes and impacts in both the cleanest air being imported into Europe and the most polluted air being exported out of Europe into the NE Atlantic.

Mission 3. Education & Training

Knowledge transfer and education is the third strand to Mace Head’s mission with the objective of producing new generations of highly skilled atmospheric, climate, and air pollution scientists across multiple disciplines, particularly physics, chemistry, biology and computational science.  The Education and Training aspects of the facility provides opportunities for undergraduate students, and both M.Sc. and PhD postgraduate students.