INAR RI acts as an umbrella RI, taking care of the implementation and national coordination (national focal point) of the ESFRI (The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) roadmap infrastructures in the environmental domain in Finland, namely ICOS, ACTRIS, eLTER and AnaEE. The activities in these NRIs are aligned by INAR RI towards common targets and integration of environmental infrastructures in European RI landscape.
ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) is a European scale distributed infrastructure for on-line, in-situ monitoring of greenhouse gases (GHG). Measurement station networks are presently in 12 countries, one of which is Finland. ICOS Finland network consists of 14 stations: four are atmospheric stations, four ecosystem stations, and six associate ecosystem stations. The stations are operated by UHEL, FMI, and UEF. First two ICOS Finland stations have been labelled as ICOS compliant stations in 2017, and most of the stations will be labelled 2018-2019.
ACTRIS is a pan-European research infrastructure producing high-quality data and information on short-lived atmospheric constituents and on the processes leading to the variability of these constituents in natural and controlled atmospheres.
Actors (UHEL, FMI, TAU and UEF) of the Finnish component of the European level ACTRIS, ACTRIS-Finland, host 15 observational sites and exploratory platforms operating on a national level from the Baltic Sea to Finnish Arctic, as well high quality observation sites overseas. Especially the four SMEAR-stations and Pallas-Sodankylä GAW super site provide essential signposts for the other ACTRIS research stations in Europe. Finland is also key player in the process of establishing an ACTRIS ERIC: interim ACTRIS Head Office and European Commission funded ACTRIS Implementation Project are led by Finland.
eLTER (European Long-term Ecosystem Research) is an umbrella network for Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) in Europe. Its members are national networks of eLTER sites. eLTER is an essential component of world-wide efforts to better understand ecosystems. Through research and monitoring, eLTER seeks to improve our knowledge of the structure and functions of ecosystems and their long-term response to environmental, societal and economic drivers. eLTER has finished its design phase and is applying for an ESFRI roadmap status in 2017. National eLETR activities are operated mainly under INAR Ecosystems RI project.
AnaEE (Infrastructure for Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems) is a research infrastructure dedicated to the experimental manipulation of managed and unmanaged terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. It aims to support scientists in their analysis, assessment and forecasting of the impact of climate and other global changes on the services that ecosystems provide to society. AnaEE is in pre-operational phase. National AnaEE activities are operated mainly under INAR Ecosystems RI project.