With a climate cataclysm imminent, the pace and scale of current climate action plans are totally insufficient to effectively address climate change. Extreme weather events, increasingly frequent and intense, are already affecting all regions of the Earth. The rise in temperatures will exacerbate these dangers, posing severe risks to both human populations and ecosystems.

It is well-established that a detailed characterization of atmospheric aerosols is essential to fully understand their role in a wide range of atmospheric processes, impacting from climate to human health. However, according to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), atmospheric aerosols remain one of the major uncertainties in climate forcing due to their extreme spatial and temporal variability. For instance, a recent study reported a 34-year multiregional analysis of aerosol particle load, revealing that the aerosol optical depth (AOD) was relatively constant before the 1990s in most regions analyzed. However, after that decade, a positive trend in AOD was observed in several regions of the world, including South America.

The CAMOMILA project aims to address the lack of relevant atmospheric information for both the population and various economic sectors (health, environment, aviation) in the regions of the La Paz Valley (Bolivia) and the Aburrá Valley (Colombia) through international collaboration to develop standardization protocols for monitoring unique atmospheric aerosol events in these South American regions. This solution is based on the use of lidar technologies, implementing the EARLINET network protocols in Europe at atmospheric stations in Colombia and Bolivia. This will enable the discrimination of atmospheric particle types in the troposphere. The origin of this solution lies in the need to enhance detection capabilities in lidar systems and track singular atmospheric aerosol events, such as high pollution episodes, volcanic eruptions, and desert dust events, among others, which can have significant impacts on human health, aviation, and the environment.

From a social perspective, the CAMOMILA project seeks to address critical needs regarding the protection of populations during emergency situations related to high concentrations of various aerosol types in the selected South American regions. The generation of precise and timely information through continuous monitoring, with reliable and verifiable atmospheric data sources, will enable authorities to make informed decisions to mitigate risks and protect vulnerable communities, as well as provide relevant information to aviation during atmospheric emergencies related to eruptive events. Furthermore, the project aims to cover training needs in the atmospheric field for communities in the selected regions by promoting knowledge dissemination and public awareness of these events, contributing to strengthening community resilience and fostering a culture of prevention.