AMAP Project Directory

Fresh water quality monitoring program is designed to collect long term water quality data from lakes and rivers. It serves EU obligated data collection among other interests. The data is used to detect variation in time in the measured variables and to assess the physiological and chemical state of the water body. The program is managed by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). Regional centres for economic development, transport and the environment are responsible for the field work needed for maintaining the monitoring stations. Monitoring frequency varies between locations from annual to once in three, six or 12 years.

Monitoring climatological and hydrological parameters in a low arctic environment.

National Environmental Monitoring in Sweden in the "Air" programme. The objective of the project is to follow climate-changing gases and particles and which effects they could have on the climate of earth. To understand and assess the human effect on the climate, regionally and globally, the atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases are monitored. The project aims follow: (i) detecting long-term trends in the carbon dioxide level, as well as trends in the amount or composition of aerosols in the background atmosphere; (ii) provide a basis to study the processes that control the aerosol life cycle from their formation through aging and transformation, until being removed from the atmosphere; (iii) provide a basis to study the processes (sources, sinks, and transport pathways) that control the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; (iv) contribute to the global network of stations that perform continous measurements of atmospheric particles and trace gases to determine their effect on the earths radiation balance and interaction with clouds and climate.

National Environmental Monitoring in Sweden in "Air" programme and sub-programme "the thickness of the ozon layer". The project follows changes in the thickness of the ozone layer in the atmosphere over Sweden.

Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure - ACTRIS  is a research infrastructure on the ESFRI roadmap from March 2016. ACTRIS is currently supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme (H2020-INFRAIA-2014-2015) from 1 May 2015 to 30 April 2019.

The objectives of ACTRIS Research Infrastructure

Detecting changes and trends in atmospheric composition and understanding their impact on the stratosphere and upper troposphere is necessary for establishing the scientific links and feedbacks between climate change and atmospheric composition.

• The primary objective of ACTRIS is to provide the 4D-variability of clouds and of the physical, optical and chemical properties of short-lived atmospheric species, from the surface throughout the troposphere to the stratosphere, with the required level of precision, coherence and integration.
• The second objective is to provide effective access to this information and the means to more efficiently use the complex and multi-scale ACTRIS parameters serving a vast community of users working on models, satellite retrievals, and analysis and forecast systems.
• The third objective is to raise the level of technology used in the RI and the quality of services offered to the community of users, involving partners from the private sector.
• Finally, the fourth objective of ACTRIS is to promote training of operators and users and enhance the linkage between research, education and innovation in the field of atmospheric science.

The main objective is to quantify the levels of air pollution in the artctic, and to document any changes in the exposures. It includes the necessary components to address impacts on ecosystems, human health, materials and climate change. 

GAW serves as an early warning system to detect further changes in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and changes in the ozone layer, and in the long-range transport of pollutants, including acidity and toxicity of rain as well as the atmospheric burden of aerosols.

Hydrometeorological monitoring program produces real time information on precipitation and snow water equivalent. Information is utilized in modeling and forecasting floods and snow load. As part of the program, information of evaporation is produced with WMO standards. The program is coordinated by Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). Finnish meteorological institute and Lapland regional centre for economic development, transport and the environment manage measurements and field work.

Hydrological monitoring aims produce real time information of water level and discharge, ice thickness including freeze-up and break-up in winter from a network of monitoring stations. Monitoring data is utilized in water resource planning, water management and flood damage prevention. Monitoring is coordinated by Finnish Environmental Institute (SYKE).

Monitoring of the water quality reflecting long-range transboundary air pollution including acidifying compounds, metals and POPs, and climatic change. Part of the sites are also including in biological monitoring. Monitoring sites are the most upland lakes and they are not under any significant human impact. Information is distributed to the UN Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. Monitoring is managed by Finnish Environmental Institute (SYKE).

Monitoring follows groundwater level and quality as well as changes in soil humidity and frost depth in winter.

The IPY-project ‘COPOL’ has a main objective of understanding the dynamic range of man-made contaminants in marine ecosystems of polar regions, in order to better predict how possible future climate change will be reflected in levels and effects at higher trophic levels. This aim will be addressed by 4 integrated work packages covering the scopes of 1) food web contaminant exposure and flux, 2) transfer to higher trophic levels and potential effects, 3) chemical analyses and screening, 4) synthesis and integration. To study the relations between climate and environmental contaminants within a project period of four years, a “location-substitutes-time”-approach will be employed. The sampling is focussed towards specific areas in the Arctic, representing different climatic conditions. Two areas that are influenced differently by different water masses are chosen; the Kongsfjord on the West-coast of Spitzbergen (79N, 12 E) and the Rijpfjord North-East of Svalbard (80N, 22 E). The main effort is concentrated in the Kongsfjord. This fjord has been identified as particularly suitable as a study site of contaminants processes, due to the remoteness of sources, and for influences of climatic changes, due to the documented relation between Atlantic water influx and the climatic index North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The water masses of the Rijpfjord have Arctic origin and serves as a strictly Arctic reference. Variable Atlantic water influx will not only influence abiotic contaminant exposure, but also food web structure, food quality and energy pathways, as different water masses carry different phyto- and zooplankton assemblages. This may affect the flux of contaminants through the food web to high trophic level predators such as seabirds and seals, due to altered food quality and energy pathways.

The main objective is to study the importance of aerosol particles on climate change and on human health. Particularly, the focus will be on the effect of biogenic aerosols on global aerosol load. During the recent years it has become obvious that homogeneous nucleation events of fresh aerosol particles take frequently place in the atmosphere, and that homogeneous nucleation and subsequent growth have significant role in determining atmospheric aerosol load. In order to be able to understand this we need to perform studies on formation and growth of biogenic aerosols including a) formation of their precursors by biological activities, b) related micrometeorology, c) atmospheric chemistry, and d) atmospheric phase transitions. Our approach covers both experimental (laboratory and field experiments) and theoretical (basic theories, simulations, model development) approaches.

The ZERO database contains all validated data from the Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations Basic Programmes (ClimateBasis, GeoBasis, BioBasis and MarinBasis). The purpose of the project is to run and update the database with new validated data after each succesfull field season. Data will be available for the public through the Zackenberg homepage linking to the NERI database. The yearly update is dependent on that each Basis programme delivers validated data in the proscribed format.

A millimeter wave radiometer is started operation at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden. The location of the instrument (67.8 N, 20.4 E) allows continuous observation of the evolution of ozone and ozone related trace gases in the Arctic polar stratosphere. It is designed for measurements of thermal emission lines around 204 Ghz. At this frequency observations include of ozone, chlorine monoxide, nitrous oxide, and nitric acid.

Objective: to determine how solar activity influences temperatures, winds, electric currents and minor constituents and to allow possible anthropogenic influences to be determined. Uses primarily measurements by the ESRAD and EISCAT radars, plus ground-based and balloon-borne measurements of atmospheric electric fields and currents.

A tropospheric lidar system with a Nd:YAG-Laser was installed at the Koldewey-Station in 1998. It operates at a laser wavelengths of 355, 532, and 1064 nm with detection at 532 nm polarised and depolarised, and at Raman wavelengths like 607nm (nitrogen). It records profiles of aerosol content, aerosol depolarisation and aerosol extinction. During polar night the profils reach from the ground up to the tropopause level, while during polar day background light reduces the altitude range. The main goal of the investigations is to determine the climate impact of arctic aerosol. Analysis of the climate impact will be performed by a high resolution regional model run at the Alfred Wegener Institute (HIRHAM). The lidar system is capable to obtain water vapour profiles in the troposphere. Water vapour profiles are crucial for the understanding of the formation of aerosols. The water vapour profiles are also used for the validation of profiles measured by the CHAMP satellite from 2001 onwards.

The stratospheric multi wavelength LIDAR instrument, which is part of the NDSC contribution of the Koldewey-Station, consists of two lasers, a XeCl-Excimer laser for UV-wavelengths and a Nd:YAG-laser for near IR- and visible wavelengths, two telescopes (of 60 cm and 150 cm diameter) and a detection system with eight channels. Ozone profiles are obtained by the DIAL method using the wavelengths at 308 and 353 nm. Aerosol data is recorded at three wavelengths (353 nm, 532 nm, 1064 nm) with depolarization measurements at 532 nm. In addition the vibrational N2-Raman scattered light at 608 nm is recorded. As lidar measurements require clear skies and a low background light level, the observations are concentrated on the winter months from November through March. The most prominent feature is the regular observation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs). PSCs are known to be a necessary prerequisite for the strong polar ozone loss, which is observed in the Arctic (and above Spitsbergen). The PSC data set accumulated during the last years allows the characterization of the various types of PSCs and how they form and develop. The 353 and 532 nm channels are also used for temperature retrievals in the altitude range above the aerosol layer up to 50 km.