The BSRN was created to improve the quality of measurements of the Earth-atmosphere radiative fluxes that determine the thermal conditions and circulation of the atmosphere and the ocean. The ISP manages this observatory at the Italian-French Concordia station in Antarctica. Installed in 2006, the BSRN was funded by the PNRA and consists of a series of passive instruments (radiometers and photometers) that measure different components of the radiation balance (both in the solar and infrared spectrum), including the surface albedo.
In addition to these measurements, during the austral summer, the columnar content of aerosols is also measured by means of an SP02sun photometer, and the ultraviolet radiation spectrum by a UV-RAD radiometer, from which it is possible to obtain the ozone concentration, along the entire atmospheric column. Other measurements that are carried out as part of the observatory's activities are in collaboration with the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and concern the physical and optical properties of atmospheric particulate matter at ground level: its diffusion, absorption coefficients and dimensional distribution.