Since February 2009, IAASARS has been operating a ground-based Atmospheric Remote Sensing Station (ARSS) to monitor ground solar radiation levels and aerosol pollution over the city of Athens, Greece. ARSS is located on the roof of the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (37.9 N, 23.8 E) at an elevation of 130 m above mean sea level. The site is located close to the Athens city centre and 10 km from the sea. ARSS is equipped with a CIMEL CE318-NEDPS9 solar photometer for the retrieval of the aerosol optical depth at 8 wavelengths from 340 to 1640 nm, including polarization observations. The CIMEL instrument is a part of NASA’s AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network). The data are processed on a daily basis and are available at AERONET’s webpage along with aerosol inversion retrievals, useful for aerosol characterization purposes (e.g. classification of Saharan dust advection, smoke or volcanic ash episodes etc). ARSS is additionally equipped with a UV-MFR instrument for radiation measurements in the UV spectral region.

The instrumentation of IAASARS constitutes a state-of-the-art passive remote sensing suite for atmospheric research, the first one that ever operated in Athens with such specifications.