The Laboratory of Physico-Chemistry of the Atmosphere (LPCA) is a research unit (UR 4493), created in 1993, currently part of the Research Center “Technological Changes and Environment” (MTE) of the University of the Opal Coast (ULCO). The laboratory is located on ULCO’s Dunkirk site, in the adjacent premises of the Industrial Environment Research House (MREI) and the “Innovation and Research in the Environment” platform (IRENE).

Since its inception, the laboratory has set itself the general objective of developing fundamental and applied research aimed at understanding anthropogenic disturbances in the environment, mainly in the atmospheric domain, by exploiting, in a complementary manner, a broad spectrum of skills in Physics and Chemistry. Its scientific field covers optics, opto-electronics, molecular spectroscopy, atmospheric physics and chemistry, remote sensing and glass chemistry. Its field of action includes experimental developments in the laboratory, measurement campaigns, numerical modeling and purely theoretical studies, with the aim of also developing links with the socio-economic world.

The researchers and teacher-researchers of the laboratory are therefore pursuing fundamental and applied research, in Physics and Chemistry, aimed at better understanding the impact of human activities on the environment, in particular in the field of the atmosphere. The Unit’s scientific project revolves around 2 themes, ACTES (Accompagnement des Transitions EnvironnementaleS – Support for Environmental Transitions) and PCMI (Physico-Chimie Moléculaire et Instrumentation – Molecular Physico-Chemistry and Instrumentation), including theoretical approaches, experimental developments in the laboratory and on-site measurement campaigns: