• Main site: 16.834°N 24.868°W 9 m a.s.l.
• Aerosol and cloud remote sensing site: 16.878°N 24.995°W 10 m a.s.l.

Observational platform

Germany

• Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)

• Khanneh Wadinga Fomba
  Facility PI
• Holger Baars
  PI deputy
• Annett Skupin
  PI deputy

Observational platform, marine site in the tropical Atlantic and Saharan dust outflow region.
The CVAO has two different locations in the island of São Vicente in the north-west of Cabo Verde.

The remote sensing facility is located at the roof of the Ocean Science Center Mindelo .
In westerly directions is the bay of Mindelo, i.e. Ocean, while in easterly direction is the island of São Vicente with its arid, volcanic surface. As the typical air flow is coming from north-east (trade winds), it passes about 10-15 km over the island before reaching the OSCM site.

The aim of the investigations are long-term observations of the particle composition and distribution and its seasonal and interannual variability in the tropical northeastern Atlantic. The observatory monitors both the intercontinental transport of Saharan dust and other aerosol from mainland Africa as well as marine aerosol. Furthermore, due to its unique location the the tropical Atlantic on the outflow region of Africa, it is a perfect facility for performing satellite validation studies. The CVAO is to our knowledge the only fully equipped remote sensing observatory in whole Africa.