The Pyrenean Platform for Observation of the Atmosphere: Site, long-term dataset and science

Abstract. The Pyrenean Platform for Observation of the Atmosphere (P2OA) is a coupled plain-mountain instrumented platform in southwest France. It is composed of two physical sites: The "Pic du Midi" mountain top observatory (2877 m a.s.l.) and the "Centre de Recherches Atmosphériques" (600 m a.s.l). Both sites are complementarily instrumented for the monitoring of climate variables and the study of meteorological processes in a mountainous region. The scientific topics covered by the P2OA include surface-atmosphere interactions in heterogeneous landscape and complex terrain, physics and chemistry of atmospheric trace species at large scale, influence of local and regional-scale emissions and transport on the atmospheric composition, and transient luminous events above thunderstorms. With a large number of instruments and a high hosting capacity, the P2OA contributes to atmospheric sciences in (i) building long-term series of atmospheric observations, (ii) hosting experimental field campaigns and instrumental tests, (iii) educational training in atmospheric observation techniques. Here we present the complete instrumentation of the P2OA and the associated datasets, give a meteorological characterization of the platform, and illustrate the potential of the P2OA and its dataset with past or ongoing studies and projects.