After completing ICOS’ thorough standardisation and quality assurance process, two additional stations — Capodimonte Ecosystem station in Italy and El Arenosillo Atmosphere station in Spain — have now received the status of ICOS labelled stations. Their labelling was confirmed by the ICOS General Assembly, adding to the steadily growing number of sites that meet the full ICOS requirements for greenhouse gas measurements.
With these new labels, the network continues to expand its coverage with high-quality, comparable data that support climate research across Europe and beyond. Station labelling is a key mechanism through which ICOS ensures the reliability of its observations: before a station can be granted the ICOS label, it must successfully pass a demanding, multi-step evaluation of its instrumentation, data processing and operational practices.
Achieving the label is an important milestone for the Capodimonte and El Arenosillo teams, reflecting years of work to align their systems with ICOS standards.
Capodimonte provides information on urban green spaces
The Capodimonte station is situated within the Real Bosco of Capodimonte in the city of Naples. The site is characterised by an evergreen forest embedded in a Mediterranean ecosystem. Its purpose is to host an integrated climate and environmental monitoring station capable of measuring fluxes of key greenhouse gases and a range of atmospheric pollutants that may pose risks to human and vegetation health.
A central aim of the station is to assess whether this urban green space functions as a source or a sink of carbon, and to determine whether concentrations of other pollutants reach levels of concern. The location offers a rare and valuable opportunity to investigate how urban vegetation interacts with anthropogenic emissions and secondary photochemical compounds within a densely populated city of nearly one million inhabitants.
“The ICOS labeling assigned to the monitoring station of the Royal Wood of Capodimonte marks an important milestone: the transformation of a historic and cultural green area into a scientific hub of European relevance. Thanks to continuous and standardized measurements of greenhouse gases and carbon balance, Capodimonte stands as a model of how natural, urban, and cultural heritage can be integrated with science and environmental policies", says Terenzio Zenone, researcher at CNR IRET and data manager.
Read the full story on the CNR IRET site.
El Arenosillo provides valuable atmospheric data from the Iberian peninsula
El Arenosillo station is strategically located in the southernmost parts of Andalusia, Spain, in a transitional point between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. El Arenosillo station provides valuable scientific data for studying the transport of air masses from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea to the interior of the Iberian Peninsula and vice versa. Furthermore, its location next to Doñana National Park, considered the greatest biodiversity hotspot and one of the most important wetlands in Europe, will help monitor the effects of climate change on this ecosystem.
In 2023, the station was featured in an episode of the ExploreICOS series.
“Thanks to the tall tower and the sample lines at high levels, it is possible to measure the emissions from the Mediterranean Sea, North Africa, Atlantic Ocean and even North America, also local and regional emissions from Sevilla, Huelva or even from Portugal, from the metropolitan area of Lisbon,” commented station Principal Investigator José Antonio Adame-Carnero at the time.
Watch a video and learn more about El Arenosillo here.
Stations receiving the ICOS label in November 2025
Class 2 Atmosphere Station El Arenosillo (ARN)
Country: Spain; Responsible institution: National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA); Station PI: José Antonio Adame-Carnero
Associated Ecosystem Station Parco Urbano di Capodimonte (IT-PCm)
Country: Italy; Responsible institution: National Research Council (CNR) – Institute of Research on Terrestrial Ecosystems (IRET); Station PI: Carlo Calfapietra
Photo credits: Pekka Pelkonen (El Arenosillo, left) and Terenzio Zenone (Capodimonte, right)