NETCARE (Network on Climate and Aerosols: Addressing Key Uncertainties in Remote Canadian Environments) is a network comprised of researchers from ten Canadian universities (Toronto, UBC, UQAM, Waterloo, UQAR, Laval, Dalhousie, Calgary, Sherbrooke, Victoria) and five partner institutions (Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Alfred Wegener Institute, Max Planck Institute, Johannes Gutenberg University). NETCARE is one of seven networks funded by the new Climate Change and Atmospheric Research (CCAR) program at NSERC. 

Announced in November 2020, the NSERC Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering was awarded to the NETCARE initiative. [Read the full announcement]

NETCARE has been configured around four research activities that address key uncertainties in the field. The first three are focused on specific aerosol-climate connections – Carbonaceous Aerosol (Activity 1), Ice Cloud Formation and Impacts (Activity 2), Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions (Activity 3) – that remain poorly characterized.  These will be addressed through a variety of observational approaches.  The fourth - Implications of Measurements on Simulations of Atmospheric Processes and Climate (Activity 4) – integrates the results from Activities 1-3, approaching the subject from a comprehensive modeling perspective so as to provide a broad assessment of aerosol climate effects.   The figure below illustrates the vision inherent to the network: