European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit (EORCU)

Previous Meetings and Workshops

To review and enhance collaboration on the results of European field measurement campaigns, EORCU has helped organise the European Workshops on Polar Stratospheric Ozone Research in Schliersee, Germany in 1990, 1992, 1995 and 1997; in Saint Jean de Luz, France in 1999; and in Göteborg, Sweden in 2002. These large scale meetings were jointly organised by the German Ministry for Science and Technology (Schliersee), and Research DG of the European Commission. Scientists from most EU and EFTA countries presented their latest findings, in particular data gathered during EASOE, SESAME, THESEO and VINTERSOL. In addition there were participants from the USA, Canada and the USSR. In May 1995 EORCU scientists assisted in the organisation of a major international conference on ozone held at Halkidiki in Greece.

After the 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2002 workshops, EORCU edited proceedings for these workshops, in which over 100 research papers were presented. EORCU also managed the preparation of the 1996 and 1999 reports of the UK Department of the Environment Stratospheric Ozone Review Group (SORG) and assisted in the preparation of the European Commission's assessment of the European coordinated research programme.

EORCU was involved with jointly organising the large scale SOLVE-THESEO 2000 meeting in Palermo, Italy in 2000 and its follow-up, the SOLVE2 VINTERSOL Joint Science Team meeting in Orlando USA in 2003. There were oral and poster presentations on the following sessions: PSCs; Denitrification; Chlorine-bromine activation; Ozone loss; Dynamics; Satellite intercomparison and validation.  A special issue for the SOLVE II / VINTERSOL joint study period was published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

EORCU continues to organise and host meetings and workshops within the atmospheric science community, which enhances cooperation between partners, facilitates planning and improves communication between investigators. Most recently EORCU was involved with organising a SPARC workshop on 'The Role of Halogen Chemistry in Polar Stratospheric Ozone Depletion' in Cambridge, June 2008 and is also aiding the organisation of the SPARC 4th General Assembly in Bologna, September 2008.

In the past, EORCU was involved with organising a number of workshops within the atmospheric science community, including:

• the 'Process-orientated validation of coupled chemistry-climate models' workshop in Grainau / Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in 2003. A report of this meeting was published in SPARC Newsletter No 23;
• the 'Arctic Ozone Loss' workshop in Potsdam, Germany in 2002; and
• the 'Nitrogen Oxides in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere' in Heidelberg, Germany in 2001.