The “O. Vittori” Observatory at Mt. Cimone: A “Lighthouse” for the Mediterranean Troposphere

The Mediterranean basin represents a global hotspot for climate change, air quality, and anthropogenic contributions to these issues. Since the early 1990s at Mt. Cimone, the highest peak of Italian northern Apennines, an observatory is performing continuous measurements of atmospheric composition. The Italian climate observatory “O. Vittori” is a research infrastructure managed by the Institute for Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (ISAC) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and hosted by the Italian Air Force. It is part of the WMO/GAW global station “Mt. Cimone” (GAW id: CMN). Due to the completely free horizon, high altitude, and great distance from major pollution sources, CMN represents a strategic platform to study the chemical–physical characteristics and climatology of the free troposphere in the South Europe and Mediterranean basin. At this observatory, continuous monitoring of climate-altering compounds (trace gases and aerosol), solar radiation, as well as meteorological parameters is carried out. Besides providing a historical perspective of scientific research at CMN, we characterize the measurement site, and we describe the current observatory technical facilities, including the e-access to data and the services for near-real-time data delivery. Good practices for educational and outreach activities are also presented.