ENEA signs agreement to protect Pelagian marine ecosystem

(AGI) Lampedusa, July 1 - The Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) has signed an agreement with the Pelagian Islands Marine Protected Area - managed by the municipalities of Lampedusa and Linosa - to study the area's climate change, monitor its water quality, and protect its marine ecosystem. At the heart of the collaboration, which began in 2005, lies the research carried out by ENEA's "Roberto Sarao" Climate Observatory in Lampedusa. It is the most well-equipped and important permanent measurement station for experimental research on the Mediterranean's climate. The characteristics of the marine and atmospheric currents in the Mediterranean make it of prime importance for understanding climatic phenomenae. The agreement entails environmental sustainability actions supported by training and dissemination of scientific knowledge. "Our Observatory in Lampedusa was recently equipped with an offshore buoy carrying various instruments to study air-sea interactions," said the director of ENEA's Sustainability and Productive and Territorial Systems Department, Roberto Morabito. "Thanks to the number and variety of measurable parameters, both marine and atmospheric, Lampedusa stands to become the foremost integrated observatory in the Mediterranean." Due to its geographic location on the southernmost point of Italy, far from any coasts or urban agglomerations, the climate station in Lampedusa - managed by the ENEA Laboratory for Observations and Analyses of Earth and Climate - is an exclusive observation point for monitoring the climate system, with special attention towards greenhouse gases, solar radiation, the ozone layer, and atmospheric particulates. Thanks to these characteristics, the European scientific community ranks it among high-priority infrastructures, such as: the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), which monitors greenhouse gases; the Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research Infrastructure, (ACTRIS), which measures the properties of the atmosphere; and various international climate monitoring networks, including NASA and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). (AGI). .