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A general overview is provided of the Horizon 2020 project AURORA (Advanced Ultraviolet Radiation and Ozone Retrieval for Applications) funded by the European Union in the frame of the Call Space, EO22015: Stimulating wider research use of Copernicus Sentinel Data. The overarching objective of AURORA is to simulate the provision of synergistic data products for the vertical profile of atmospheric ozone and to assess their quality with respect to the one expected for the operational products of the geostationary (GEO) mission Sentinel 4 and of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mission as Sentinel5p and Sentinel5. The project addresses key scientific issues relevant for synergistic exploitation of data acquired in different spectral ranges by different instruments on board the atmospheric Sentinels. A novel approach, based on the assimilation of GEO and LEO fused products by application of an innovative algorithm to S4 and S5 synthetic data, is adopted to assess quality of the unique ozone vertical profile obtained in a context simulating the operational environment. First priority is then attributed to the lower atmosphere with calculation of tropospheric columns and UV surface radiation from the resulting ozone vertical distribution. In parallel, AURORA tackles the technological challenges of creating the infrastructure, exploiting virtual machines and cloud data sharing, to implement the data processing chain, including a geodatabase and webservices for data access. The infrastructure represents a best practice that plays a key role in ensuring wider use of Copernicus Sentinel data for academia, public agencies and industry. It is the basis for a market analysis for premarket applications and uptake in commercial communities. Strategic dissemination and exploitation is targeted to European level (academia, CAMS, GEOSS) and international level (potential synergies and data exchange will be investigated with TEMPO and GEMS, in USA and ASIA). This presentation offers a first introduction to the three years project AURORA (February 1st, 2016 - January 31st, 2019) and describes the scientific, technological and applicationoriented concepts acting as the pillars of the proposed research and development activities. The scope and objectives of the project, the work plan, the expected outcome, as well as the longterm perspectives, are illustrated in some details. In conclusion, the progress status, along with a summary of the results obtained in the preliminary and first phase of the program, is reported. Furthermore, it will be possible to follow the subsequent steps and the dissemination initiatives of AURORA by using the list of references and contact points indicated at the end of the overview.

The exploitation of the synergy between infrared and mm-wave limb sounding measurements is one of the key strength of the scientific payload proposed for the PREMIER mission candidate to the Core Missions of ESA Earth Explorer 7. As part of the preparatory activities of PREMIER, the PremierEx campaign was conducted in the Arctic region (Kiruna, Sweden) with the high altitude research aircraft M-55 Geophysica in March 2010. In this work, we discuss the synergistic use of MARSCHALS and MIPAS-STR data acquired during the Premier Ex scientific flight conducted on March 10, 2010 by using an innovative approach to the problem of atmospheric data fusion. We compare the quality of synergistic and individual retrieval products and present our conclusions on the potential of combined exploitation of the information associated to infrared and mm-wave limb observations of the UTLS. The cloud coverage (low clouds in the first part, no clouds in the central part and high tropospheric clouds at the end) observed along the flight provided representative test cases to evaluate the synergy in three different cloudy scenarios.

An overview of the results obtained by the MARSCHALS (Millimetre-wave Airborne Receivers for Spectroscopic CHaracterisation in Atmospheric Limb Sounding) instrument during Premier-Ex (March 2010, Kiruna, Sweden) and ESSenCe 2011 (December 2011, Kiruna, Sweden) aircraft Arctic campaigns is presented. The two campaigns were part of the activities conducted as preparatory studies for PREMIER (Process Exploration through Measurements of Infrared and millimeter-wave Emitted Radiation), one of the three candidate core missions of ESA Earth Explorer 7. The primary objective of PREMIER is to gain a better understanding of the processes that are linking atmospheric chemistry and dynamics with climate. PREMIER will achieve this by observing the Upper Troposphere / Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) - a region of particular importance in the study of climate change - with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. PREMIER combines the complementary capabilities of two limb-sounders in the infrared and millimeter-wave spectral regions and MARSCHALS was developed as an airborne demonstrator of the PREMIER millimeter-wave spectrometer. In the frame of the two Arctic campaigns, MARSCHALS sampled the Arctic UTLS retrieving vertical profiles of its main atmospheric targets (T, H2O, O3, HNO3, N2O, CO). The obtained vertical profiles have been used to investigate chemical and dynamical processes taking place in the Arctic atmosphere. In particular, we found the presence of filaments of vortex air during the Premier-Ex campaign and of re-nitrification or HNO3 redistribution due to sedimentation followed by evaporation of Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) particles during the ESSenCe campaign. Furthermore, the results of the comparisonbetween MARSCHALS and MIPAS-STR products as well as the state of the atmosphere during the ESSenCe campaign simulated by theCLaMS (Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere) and EMAC (ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry) models will be presented.