Projects/Activities

The project IOANA proposes to better understand the intimate coupling between ozone mixing ratios and particulate nitrate isotopic characteristics. Ozone Depletion Events which occur in Arctic coastal locations shortly after sunrise are a subject of interest per se (scientifically challenging for two decades) but also provide a context in which ozone mixing ratios are highly variable, enabling to characterize the dynamic of correlation and process studies with a resolution of a day. This is a first step towards the use of the isotope tool in reconstructions of the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. This programme is a preparation of the IPY-OASIS project and propose to coodinate a set of collaborations than will be effective duing the International Polar Year.

The project aims at producing an ENVISAT-1 mission-long monitoring of the inorganic chlorine (Cly) and fluorine (Fy) loading in the Earth’s middle atmosphere, based on FTIR vertical column abundance measurements of the key related species HCl, ClONO2, HF and COF2 at 10 ground-based NDSC sites distributed worldwide. These Cly and Fy inventories will be completed with ClO and OClO measurements expected as Level-2 products from ENVISAT-1. The column abundances of the source gases CFC-12 and HCFC-22 will be used to place the stratospheric Cly and Fy evolution in perspective with the more complete sets of organic chlorinated and fluorinated compounds measured at the ground by the in situ networks NOAA-CMDL and AGAGE. The assimilation of the retrieved geophysical data bases will be performed through 3-D model calculations incorporating physical, chemical and transport characteristics of the global atmosphere.

The present project aims at the geophysical validation, from pole to pole and on the long term, of key ozone-related level-2 products (O3, NO2, BrO, OClO, and ClO) from GOMOS, MIPAS and SCIAMACHY onboard ENVISAT-1, and at a contribution to the maturation of the related level-1b-to-2 data processors. Application data processing will be used to convert level-2 data into a more suitable format for validation and scientific end-users. The respective performances of the ENVISAT data products, and their sensitivity to various relevant parameters, will be investigated from the Arctic to the Antarctic, over a variety of geophysical conditions. The impact of these performances on specific atmospheric chemistry studies will be emphasised. The pseudo-global investigations will rely on correlative studies of ENVISAT data with high-quality ground-based, in situ and balloon observations associated with the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC).

The project will provide a long-term, pseudo-global validation support to the ENVISAT-1 atmospheric measurements, based on mutually consistent high-quality solar and lunar observations from FTIR spectrometers operated at primary and a number of complementary NDSC stations. The validation is limited to a number of target species, most of which are primary NRT or OL level-2 products of the mission, with focus on NOy components: O3, NO2, NO, N2O, HNO3, HNO4, H2CO, CO and CH4. Synergistic use will be made of column and profile data from MIPAS, GOMOS and SCIAMACHY. The ground network will deliver mean vertical column abundances for all target species with NDSC-type quality, and height profile information for some target gases as secondary products to the PI's home institute, where the correlative analyses with the ENVISAT-1 products will be done. Asynoptic mapping tools will support the validation efforts.

The main objectives of ESAC II are the following: (1) Extend and improve the important existing Belgian contribution in atmospheric research started in the 50s, recognized internationally. (2) Investigate the chemistry of the atmosphere, to detect and understand its evolution, mainly with experimental means. Special attention will be paid to the evolution of the ozone layer and chemical species and processes with an impact on climate changes. (3) Support the Belgian policies and decisions regarding the Amendments to: - the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer; - the Kyoto Protocol on Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions.

SOGE is an integrated system for observation of halogenated greenhouse gases in Europe. There are two objectives: (1) To develop a new cost-effective long-term European observation system for halocarbons. The results will be in support of the Kyoto and the Montreal protocols,in assessing the compliance of European regions with the protocol requirements. In particular the observation system will be set up to: - detect trends in the concentrations of greenhouse active and ozone-destroying halocarbons; - verify reported emissions and validate emission inventories; - develop observational capacity for all halocarbons included in the Kyoto protocol (PFC, SF6) for which this is presently not yet existing; - develop a strategy for a cost-effective long-term observation system for halocarbons in Europe. (2) To predict and assess impacts of the halocarbons on the climate and on the ozone layer. This implies extensive exploitation of existing data. The impact assessment will be aimed at providing guidance for development of the Kyoto protocol and to the further development of the Montreal protocol mendments, by: - modelling impacts of halocarbons on radiative forcing and their relative importance for climate change; - modelling impacts of emissions of CFCs and HCFCs on the ozone layer.

The aim of QUILT is to optimise the exploitation of the existing European UV-visible monitoring systems by which O3 and the related free radicals NO2, BrO and OClO can be measured. These monitoring systems include ground-based, balloon and satellite observations. QUILT is providing an assessment of the chemical ozone loss over the last decade and through 2000-2003. This is achieved through analysis improvements, consolidation of existing datasets and near real time integrations with chemical transport models.

The goals of this experiment are to map out the chemical changes in the free troposphere as the atmosphere transitions from winter to spring. It is hoped to begin to understand the chemical conditions that influence the lifetime of ozone and understand more about the productivity of this region of the atmosphere with respect to the in-situ production of ozone. How the free troposphere responds to changing levels of pollution could be critical to the development of future abatement strategies.

The overall objective of COSE is to provide the Earth Observation (EO) user community with a validated, consistent and well-documented data set of mainly stratospheric constituent columns and/or profiles, by co-ordination of ground-based observations at existing stations in Europe. The data set builds on past and ongoing time series, and will be archived in a dedicated database for immediate and future exploitation, e.g., satellite validation activities, data assimilation and scientific studies. Active participation of some representative EO customers will assure that the delivered data sets come up to their requirements.

The main specific objectives of UFTIR are: (1) To revise and homogenise the analyses of available experimental data for providing consistent time series of distinct tropospheric and stratospheric abundances of the target gases using new inversion algorithms. A common strategy for retrieval and characterisation of the vertical distributions of the target gases from FTIR ground-based measurements will be established. (2) To provide quantitative trends and associated uncertainties for the target gases over about the last decade, as a function of latitude throughout Western Europe, focusing on the troposphere. (3) To integrate the data in model assessments of the evolutions of tropospheric abundances. The measured burden and changes of the tropospheric gases will be compared with 3D model simulations, in order to help developing the latter, assist in explaining potential causes for the observed changes and to assess the consistencies between the trends at the surface to the free troposphere and lowermost stratosphere, and the agreement with known evolutions of emissions. UFTIR will make the community prepared to deliver tropospheric data for validation and synergistic exploitation of new satellite experiments like ENVISAT.

1. To undertake a review of procedures used in the regulation and monitoring of marine cage fish farms in Norway, Scotland and elsewhere to be used as the basis for creating an appropriate set of protocols, monitoring systems and techniques for the control of such farms in Mediterranean conditions 2. To carry out a field research programme to provide appropriate data on the environmental impact of marine cage fish farms in a range of conditions in the eastern Mediterranean. 3. To develop a predictive model to simulate the environmental response at Mediterranean sea cage farms to differing cage stocking levels and feeding regimes. This will be designed as a management tool for both the industry and regulatory authorities.

1. Observations of the physics of vertical and open boundary exchange in Regions of Restricted Exchanges (REEs), leading to improved parameterisation of these processes in research and simplified models. 2. Study of the phytoplankton and pelagic micro-heterotrophs responsible for production and decomposition of organic material, and of sedimentation, benthic processes and benthic-pelagic coupling, in RREs, with the results expressed as basin-scale parameters. 3. Construction of closed budgets and coupled physical-biological research models for nutrient (especially nitrogen) and organic carbon cycling in RREs, allowing tests of hypotheses about biogeochemistry, water quality and the balance of organisms. 4. Construction of simplified 'screening' models for the definition, assessment and prediction of eutrophication, involving collaboration with 'end-users', and the use of these models to analyse the costs and benefits of amelioration scenarios.

1. To descirbe and compare the phylogenetic diversity and distribution of the total bacterial flora associated with G catenatum cysts and vegetative cells. 2. To culture and identify bacteria from G catenatum, and identify/characterise any bacteria capable of autonomous PST production in G. catenatum 3. To examine the effect of cyst surface sterilisation and re-introduction of bacteria on PST production in G catenatum 4. Survey bacteria for quorum sensing capability (cell signaling) and detect in situ quorum sesing in xenic G. catenatum cultures, relating to toxicity development. 5. Develop molecular markers of cross species quorum sensing, facilitating analysis of quorum sensing in uncultivated bacteria.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has very recently revised the prediction of global average temperature increase during the next century from 1.0-3.5 to 1.4-5.8 K. The increase in the upper limit of the prediction is largely due to the role of aerosols in the climate of the Earth: it is believed that reduction of pollution will result in reduced direct and indirect (via clouds) scattering of sunlight back to the space. However, as can be seen from the large uncertainty of the estimated temperature increase, not enough is known about the role of natural and anthropogenic aerosols in climate processes. This is also reflected in the Key Action 2, under the RTD priority 2.1.1, calling for ”… quantification and prediction of … concentration of … aerosols, in particular the fine fraction of particles and their precursors”. The concentration of aerosols is controlled by their sources and sinks, and thus the prediction of particle concentration requires the quantification of aerosol source terms. The main objective of QUEST is to quantify the number of new secondary aerosol particles formed through homogeneous nucleation in the European boundary layer, and the relative contributions of natural and anthropogenic sources. The role of homogeneous nucleation in the formation of new atmospheric particles was realized in the 1990s, and considerable effort has been devoted to studies of aerosol formation in various parts of the Globe. The longest continuous data series of nucleation events has been obtained at a forest field station in Finland, where aerosol size distributions between 3 and 150 nm in diameter have been recorded in 10 minute intervals since the beginning of 1996 [1]. Nucleation events occur in this rather clean Boreal area roughly 50-60 times per year, the highest event frequency taking place in the spring months (March-May). The concentration of new particles per cc of air formed during one event varies between roughly 100-10 000. Taking the average number to be one thousand, and assuming that the nucleation takes place in a well mixed boundary layer having a height of 1000 m, it can be estimated that the aerosol source term in the Boreal forest area is on the order of 51013 m-2 per year. This is on the same order as the global aerosol yield estimated from primary emissions [2]. The number given here is very crude as we can at present only guess the vertical extent of the nucleation zone; however, it clearly shows that homogeneous nucleation events influence atmospheric particle concentrations at least at regional scales, and possibly also globally. Many features of the Boreal nucleation events have been revealed thus far. Necessary (but not sufficient) conditions include sunny weather, vertical mixing of air in the morning (prior to the detection of the event) [1], and a treshold value of a quantity that depends on radiation intensity (vapor source) and pre-existing aerosol size distribution (vapor sink) [3]. The springtime events always seem to take place in Polar or Arctic air masses [4], but so far it is unclear whether the meteorology is similar during other seasons. Aerosol flux measurements [5] indicate that the particles are formed aloft, but the vertical extent of the nucleation layer is unknown. However, there is clear evidence from simultaneous measurements at various locations, that the horizontal extent of the areas in which the nucleation takes place can be hundreds and in some cases even thousands of kilometers [1]. No direct correlation of nucleation events with SO2 concentrations has been found; however the product of SO2 concentration, ammonia concentration, and calculated OH concentration correlates with the events (personal communication). These results hint that the recently suggested ternary sulfuric acid-ammonia-water nucleation mechanism of small clusters, followed by the growth of the clusters due to condensation of other (possibly organic) vapors [6], may be operational in the Boreal forest area. Furthermore, there is experimental evidence that nucleation event particles in the 4-5 nm range are soluble in butanol (working fluid of condensation particle counters), which indicates organic composition. However, the confirmation of the ternary nucleation hypothesis requires simultaneous measurements of sulfuric acid vapor and ammonia, and further studies of the composition of the nucleated particles. Furthermore, to facilitate large-scale modelling studies, the vertical extent of the nucleation events, as well as the meteorological conditions during non-springtime events have to be investigated. Measurements of nucleation events at a more Central European location indicate that SO2 levels increase during the majority of nucleation events [7]. It can be hypothesized that a part of observed nucleation events (minority in Central Europe, majority in the Boreal area) are ”natural” and a part are affected (or even caused) by pollution (majority in Central Europe, minority in the Boreal area). The confirmation of this hypothesis and implementation of the pollution type nucleation mechanism into a large-scale model requires carefully designed measurements from a location which is preferably Southern European as there is very little available nucleation data from this area. One of the few observations of new particles in Southern Europe [8] is from the Italian site where we plan to study the frequency, meteorology, vertical extent, and chemical precursors of nucleation events. Another type of nucleation events has been observed all along the western coast of Europe and have been studied more particularly at the west coast of Ireland [9]. These events, which have a duration of the order of 4 hours and up to 8 hours, occur almost daily around low tide and under conditions of solar radiation, indicating photochemical source. Incredibly, the peak new particle concentrations often exceed 106 cm-3, making this the strongest natural source region of atmospheric particles. The exact chemical mechanisms leading to the production of coastal particles still remains an open question. As in other environments, there appears to be sufficient sulphuric acid vapour to participate in ternary nucleation with ammonia and water, however, there is insufficient sulphuric acid to grow these particles to detectable sizes [9]. The most probable chemical species involved in the production or growth of these particles is Iodine, or an Iodine Oxide, produced photochemically from biogenic halocarbon emissions [9]. The production of particles from the photolysis of CH2I2 in the presence of ozone has been confirmed by recent smog chamber experiments [10]. While the concentration of new particles in this environment is extraordinarily high, its impact on background particle and CCN contribution remains unclear and needs to be quantified. A limited single study [11] has shown that the coastal aerosol plume is detectable up to several hunderds of km downwind and that the new coastal particles readily grow into CCN sizes (larger than 100 nm). An intensive campaign at the coast of Ireland will quantify the flux of both biogenic halocarbon precursor gases and the yield of new, and radiatively-active particles in the European coastal boundary layer. The objective of QUEST is to determine the source strength of new particle formation in the three above mentioned cases. The specific objectives are: 1) To fill in gaps that exist in the understanding of chemical and physical pathways leading to homogeneous nucleation of new aerosol particles; 2) To understand the meteorological conditions required for the events to take place and to be able to predict the horizontal and vertical extent of the events; 3) To implement parametrized representations of the nucleation mechanisms, based on the information from 1) and 2), to an European scale model in order to determine the source strength of homogeneous nucleation of aerosol particles in the European boundary layer.

The principal aim of the project is to establish a link between the marine carbon and sulphur cycles, for which the marine phytoplankton taxon Phaeocystis sp. was chosen as a model organism. This colony forming alga is an important source of the volatile organic sulphur compound dimethyl sulphide (DMS), and its dense blooms can act as a carbon sink. By combining the expertise of researchers working on the carbon and sulphur cycles a thorough inventory of these chemicals will be made. This should result in a better understanding of the role of Phaeocystis blooms in the escape of DMS in the atmosphere and of carbon from the photic zone, and consequently of its role in climate control.

During 2000, observations under the framework of control of radioactive contamination were continued at 34 sites of the State System of Radiation Monitoring in the Russian Arctic. At all stations, daily monitoring of exposure dose strength of gamma emissions, and daily sampling of radioactive fallout from the atmosphere to determine total beta-activity are conducted. At sites in Arkhangelsk, Naryan-Mar, Salekhard, Murmansk, Dikson Island, Zhelaniya Cape, Kheis Island and Kandalaksha, sampling of atmospheric aerosols and precipitation was performed for specific radioisotopic analysis, including determination of tritium. Samples of surface water for determination of levels of 90-Sr and tritium were collected at radioactive contamination control stations in the mouth regions of the largest rivers of the Russian Arctic (Severnaya Dvina, Pechora, Mezen, Ob, Yenisey, Khatanga, Indigirka). 26 samples were collected for this purposes in 2000. Samples for determination of 90-Sr in seawater were collected at relevant sites in the Barents Sea and White Sea.

Phase I: Evaluation of the Current Status of the Problem with Respect to Environmental Impact and Development of Proposals for Priority Remedial Actions: The main goal of phase 1 of the multilateral PCB project is the evaluation of the current status of the PCB problem in Russia. The objectives of sub-activities under phase 1 of the project included: - Assessment of the overall production of PCB in the former USSR and Russian Federation, and the calculation of a mass-balance of the amount produced. - Estimation of the total volume of PCB still in use, in equipment and in wastes located within the territories of Russian Federation. - Preparation of an inventory of environmental releases from industrial uses and waste. - Development of proposals for priority remedial actions. Project results are presented in relevant publications (see below).

1) To perform simulation scenarios for the 21st century, including global warming scenarios, of potential radioactive spreading from sources in the Russian Arctic coastal zone and its impact on Barents, Greenland and Norwegian Seas and the Arctic Ocean; 2) To update the environmental and pollution data base of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP); 3) To assess, select and define the most probable simulation scenarios for accidental releases of radionuclides; 4) To implement a Generic Model System (GMS) consisting of several nested models designed to simulate radionuclides transport through rivers, in the Kara sea and in the Arctic ocean / North Atlantic; 5) To carry out simulation studies for the selected "release" scenarios of radionuclides, using various atmospheric forcing scenarios; 6) Assess the impact on potential radioactive spreading from sources as input to risk management.