The Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

After the completion of the chair in Atmospheric Physics (November 1979), announced at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), the respective laboratory starts operating and two years later is recognised by legislation. In the first years the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics (LAP) was located at the Meteorological Observatory together with the Laboratory of Meteorology and then LAP moved to the building of School of Sciences in 1984.

Since 1979 the LAP supports the education of the undergraduate students of the Physics Department of AUTH and since 1993 supports the educational needs of the postgraduate course in Environmental Physics. In 1980, the LAP was donated from NOAA and the Academy of Athens the first optical instruments and in 1982 the LAP obtained the first automated monochromator of Brewer type which was the first instrument of this kind that was deployed in the international monitoring network. The LAP installed the first station for the measurement of the ultraviolet solar radiation in Greece and today holds the longest record of ultraviolet measurements in non-cloudy days (since 1990). In 1984, the director of LAP was chairman of the International Ozone Symposium at Chalkidiki in which it was reported for first time the famous "ozone hole" by the Japanese Professor S. Chubachi. This was an outstanding year for environment because the discovery of the decrease of the ozone layer lead in 1987 to the Montreal Protocol.

The year 1992 is also an important year for LAP because after a proposal submitted from the director of LAP to the European Community (EC) and United Nations (UN), the World Total Ozone Mapping Centre of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) of UN was installed at LAP. The ozone mapping centre has been operated permanently at LAP since 1994. Also, within the framework of the international project STRIDE co-ordinated by LAP the national monitoring network of ultraviolet solar radiation was deployed. The LAP obtains in 1993 the first double monochromator and at the same time develops the first LIDAR for remote sensing of the atmosphere. LAP participates to several European Arctic Ozone Experiments and installs the first Greek Arctic station for measuring total ozone and UV solar radiation at Reykjavic, Island. In the decade of 1990 the LAP co-ordinates or participates in all the international meetings for the calibration of the measuring systems of UV solar radiation. In addition, the LAP with funds from EC, UN, the Department of Environment, the General Secretariat of Research and Technology and AUTH organises scientific workshops, summer schools and international conferences. The LAP provides services to UN, EC, ESA, NASA, DASA and other International Organisations with research projects in which a number of Greek and foreign researchers are employed.