Funding sources of European TCCON stations Sample Clauses

Funding sources of European TCCON stations. There is an important difference between the European TCCON and many other stations in the international TCCON: at least in North America (and partly Australia) and Japan, the TCCON stations have been integral parts of the respective OCO/OCO-2/OCO-3 and GOSAT/GOSAT-2 missions from the beginning. Together, NASA and JAXA/XXXX have funded the initial setup and continued operation of 5 stations in North America, 1 in Australia, 3 in Japan, and 1 in the Philippines – roughly 2/3 of the non-European stations. This is not the case for the European TCCON stations. Their funding is diverse, typically a mixture of institutional and competitive 3rd party funding. About 2/3 of the European stations require a continuous supply of substantial 3rd party funding to keep up their basic operations and key personnel. And even the ones with tenured key personnel often rely on PhD students for data acquisition and analysis and would only be able to offer reduced service without them. At this time the German and Belgian groups receive funding from their national space agencies and ESA for Sentinel 5P validation. This funding prioritised combined NDACC/TCCON sites and important TCCON sites. Orleans and Cyprus (formerly Bialystok), were excluded from this Sentinel 5P validation funding. Also in the case of Belgium, this funding only covers the validation itself and not the actual operational cost. Unlike many of their non-European counterparts with their respective GHG missions, the European TCCON sites are not integrated into the upcoming European satellite GHG missions. Also, the last substantial funding for European TCCON stations from the EU Research Framework Programme ended more than 10 years ago.