Members of the CATRINE project gathered at ECMWF in Reading, UK, on 23–24 June 2026 for the project’s final in-person General Assembly (GA), bringing together partners, invited guests, the EC Project Officer and the project External Reviewer for two days of scientific updates, review discussions and planning for the project’s final phase.
The hybrid meeting provided an opportunity to review progress across the project, share recent scientific developments and discuss how CATRINE results can support future recommendations for the Copernicus CO2 Monitoring and Verification Support capacity (CO2MVS).
The event was well attended, with 19 participants joining in person and five online.
Day 1 focused on Work Package presentations and updates from the WP leaders. It also served as an interim review point, with the project joined in-person by EC Project Officer, Natassa Antoniou (HaDEA) and External Reviewer, Stephen Briggs (University of Cambridge).
Day 2 brought the project team and invited guests together for targeted discussions on scorecards, evaluation and recommendations for CO2MVS.
Day 1: Scientific updates and interim review
Anna Agusti-Panareda, Michail Diamantakis and Rhona Phipps (ECMWF) opened the meeting with a welcome and introduction to the two days of presentations and discussions.
Natassa Antoniou outlined the review process and welcomed Stephen Briggs, who joined the meeting as the project’s external reviewer.
Richard Engelen (ECMWF) joined remotely from Bonn to present “The relevance of CATRINE for the CAMS CO2MVS”, setting the scene for the scientific updates that followed.
The Work Package presentations highlighted progress across the project’s main scientific and coordination activities.
WP2 presented the latest developments on new tracer transport schemes, with updates from Sylvie Malardel (MF) and Michail Diamantakis.
WP4 shared intercomparison results from large-eddy simulation (LES) models over Rotterdam and Paris, presented by Maarten Krol (WUR) in-person and Thomas Lauvaux (LSCE) online.
WP6 presented the latest results on evaluating parameterisations in global CO2MVS, including metrics to assess transport between the atmospheric boundary layer, free troposphere and upper troposphere/lower stratosphere. The session was led by Jordi Vila (WUR) and Stefan Versick (KIT).
WP8 focused on the development and evaluation of scorecards, with latest results presented by Anna Agusti-Panareda and Frederic Chevallier (CNRS).
Rhona Phipps provided an update on WP10, the coordination work package, highlighting progress during the review period and outlining key tasks and deadlines for the next reporting phase.
The Project Officer and external reviewer thanked the presenters for the detailed scientific updates, with initial feedback positive overall. Final review feedback will be provided in due course as part of the standard reporting timeline.
The first day concluded with a project dinner in Reading, giving participants a welcome opportunity to continue discussions and catch up informally.
CATRINE GA and review in the ECMWF Council Chamber
Project Coordinators; Anna and Michail with EC Project Officer; Natassa Antoniou and CATRINE Project External Reviewer; Stephen Briggs
Project Dinner
Day 2: Scorecards, model uncertainty and recommendations for CO2MVS
Day 2 featured invited presentations from Sarah-Jane Lock (ECMWF) on “Representing model uncertainties” and Leena Järvi and Nyyti K. Ojanen (University of Helsinki) on “Simulating urban boundary layer and turbulent transport over Paris using the PALM model system”. This was followed by two focussed discussion topics:
- Discussion on WP6 and WP8 scorecards and evaluation to provide recommendations for CO2MVS, led by Alessandro Savazzi.
- Discussion on LES plume scorecards from WP4 and their evaluation to provide recommendations for CO2MVS, led by Maarten Krol and Thomas Lauvaux.
Invited speakers: Sarah-Jane Lock (Left image) and Nyyti K. Ojanen and Leena Järvi (Right image)
Anna Agusti-Panareda and Michail Diamantakis closed the two-day meeting by thanking all participants for their contributions, presentations and discussions.
Reflecting on the meeting, Anna Agusti-Panareda and Michail Diamantakis said: “The CATRINE Review and General Assembly meeting was a great success, highlighting significant progress across the work packages and pointing towards further exciting results in the project’s final six months.”
The project team thanks all presenters and contributors to the Work Package updates, as well as the local support team for their help with organisation.
Special thanks also go to Project Officer Natassa Antoniou, external reviewer Stephen Briggs and everyone who travelled to Reading to attend the meeting in-person.
Article prepared by R.Phipps (ECMWF), with some reformatting by Copilot.
Images courtesy of project team.
