The full list of projects contains the entire database hosted on this portal, across the available directories. The projects and activities (across all directories/catalogs) are also available by country of origin, by geographical region, or by directory.
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 overall goals of ACCENT are to promote a common European strategy for research on atmospheric composition change, to develop and maintain durable means of communication and collaboration within the European scientific community, to facilitate this research and to optimise two-way interactions with policy-makers and the general public. ACCENT will establish Europe as an international leader in atmospheric composition change research, able to steer research agendas through its involvement in major international programmes. ACCENT furthermore aims to become the authoritative voice in Europe on issues dealing with atmospheric composition change and sustainability.
The project aims at establishing a long-term Arctic-Antarctic network of monitoring stations for atmospheric monitoring of anthropogenic pollution. Based upon the long and excellent experiences with different scientific groups performing air monitoring within the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), an expanded network will be established including all AMAP stations and all major Antarctic “year-around” research stations. As an integrated project within the “International Polar Year 2007-08” initiative, the ATMOPOL co-operation intend to • Establish a long-term coordinated international Arctic-Antarctic contaminant programme. • Develop and implement a joint sampling and monitoring strategy as an official guideline for all participating stations. • Support bi-polar international atmospheric research with high-quality data on atmospheric long-range transport of contaminants (sources, pathways and fate). • Support future risk assessment of contaminants for Polar Regions based on effects of relevant contamination levels and polar organisms Based upon the well-established experiences of circum-Arctic atmospheric contaminant monitoring in the Arctic under the AMAP umbrella, a bi-polar atmospheric contaminant network will be established and maintained. In conjunction with the polar network of atmospheric monitoring stations for air pollution, surface-based and satellite instrumentation will be utilised to provide the characterization of the Arctic atmospheric-water-ice cycle. Together with numerical weather prediction and chemical transport model calculations, simultaneous measurements of pollutants at various locations in the Arctic and Antarctic will enhance our understanding of chemical transport and distribution as well as their long-term atmospheric trends. In addition to investigating the importance of atmospheric transport of pollutants an understanding of the transference and impact of these pollutants on both terrestrial and marine environments will be sought. A secretariat and a “scientific project board” will be established. During this initial phase of the project (2006), a guideline on priority target compounds, sampling strategies, equipment and instrumentation, analytical requirements, as well as quality assurance protocols (including laboratory intercalibration exercises) will be developed and implemented. The ATMOPOL initiative aims to address highly relevant environmental change processes and, thus, will strive to answering the following scientific questions: • How does climate change influence the atmospheric long-range transport of pollutants? • Are environmental scientists able to fill the gaps in international pollution inventories and identification of possible sources for atmospheric pollution in Polar Regions? • What are the differences in transport pathways and distribution patterns of various atmospheric pollutants between Arctic and Antarctic environments? Why are there such differences? What is the final fate of atmospherically transported pollutants and how does this impact on the environment and indigenous people?In order to understand the underlying atmospheric chemistry of pollution, e.g. atmospheric mercury deposition events, routine surface measurements of UV radiation as well as campaign related measurements of UV radiation profiles will also be included.The project will establish a cooperative network on atmospheric contaminant monitoring in Polar Regions far beyond the IPY 2007/08 period and is, thus, planned as an “open-end” programme. All produced data will be available for all participating institutions for scientific purposes as basis for joint publications and reports from the ATMOPOL database to be developed.
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.
Peat samples from Greenland already collected and dated will be analysed for mercury in order to assess term time trends of mercury deposition during this century.
The polar ionosphere is sensible to the enhancement of the electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles coming from the Sun expecially around a maximum of solar activity . Some typical phenomena can occur such as, among the others, geomagnetic storms, sub-storms and ionospheric irregularities. In this frame the high latitude ionosphere may become highly turbulent showing the presence of small-scale (from centimetres to meters) structures or irregularities imbedded in the large-scale (tens of kilometers) ambient ionosphere. These irregularities produce short term phase and amplitude fluctuations in the carrier of the radio waves which pass through them. These effects are commonly called Amplitude and Phase Ionospheric Scintillations that can affect the reliability of GPS navigational systems and satellite communications. The goal of this proposal is to contribute to the understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible of the ionospheric scintillations as well as to data collecting for nowcasting/forecasting purposes at high latitude. As the scarceness of polar observations, the specific site near Ny-Ålesund is of particular experimental interest.
The central objectives of the proposed ATMAS project are: to quantify the photo-chemically triggered NOx and HONO re-emission fluxes from permanently and seasonally snow-covered surfaces in the Arctic near Ny-Ålesund, to quantify the sources of NO3 in these snow-covered surfaces. In detail, the following scientific objectives of ATMAS can be distinguished: 1. to quantify atmospheric gradient fluxes of HNO3, HONO, particulate nitrogen compounds, and nitrogen in precipitation (snow and rain) above snow surfaces; 2. to quantify the emission of NOx and HONO from the snow pack as atmospheric gradient fluxes 3. to formulate an influx-outflow relationship that can be used in dependence on the snow type for (photo-)chemical atmospheric process models. The results of this research may be expanded to a regional (European) or global scale, to suggest how the NOx and HONO re-emission process and its consequences can be included into regional emission, dispersion and deposition models used in Europe.
Observation of the high latitude auroral activity, during the winter season, by means of automatic all-sky camera(s). Study of the high-latitude auroral activity, focusing on the so-called “dayside auroras”: a particular phenomenon concerning the direct precipitation of the thermalised solar wind plasma through the geomagnetic cusps, favourably observable from the Svalbard. The analysis of the data, mainly devoted to the “dayside auroras”, will concern the comparison of the optical images obtained from both the station of Ny-Alesund and the new one of Daneborg (Greenland) with the data collected by Wind, ACE, DSMP, Polar, and Cluster satellites. Starting from the 2002 season, the joint auroral observations from Ny-Alesund and Daneborg allows the monitoring of a relevant area involved in the “dayside aurora” phenomena.
The min goals are: -to study the organic composition, trace gas and aerosols in environmental air; -to try to identify transport phenomena (i.e. from Europe), local degradation and removal processes; -to evaluate the effect of the organic compounds on the polar environment, toxic compounds or formed photochemical products in order to prevent and protect the climatology and their environment. Organic compounds determination is focused on two sampling field campaigns in the Arctic region, in the summer and in the winter corresponding at day conditions and night time.
The project EPOPEE is embedded in the international project ASTAR to study direct and indirect climate effects of aerosols and clouds in the Arctic. The particular goals of the project EPOPEE are to experimentally characterize the ice phase in Arctic clouds (including the ice phase) in situ, to study the aerosol-cloud as well as cloud-radiation interactions, and to develop adequate methods to validate remote sensing cloud parameters. In 2004 the project EPOPEE is mainly organized around in situ observations of detailed microphysical and optical cloud properties onboard the Polar-2 aircraft during the transition from polluted Arctic haze (observed especially in late winter, early spring months) to clean summer aerosol conditions. The transition from Arctic haze to clean summer conditions is quite sharp (a large amount of aerosols coming from Eurasian industrial areas accumulate over the Arctic and cover the Arctic by a layer of a smog-like haze of the size of the continent of Africa) due to a radical change in atmospheric transport patterns and is, thus, easy to identify. During Arctic summer, the high latitudes are then more or less “protected” from long-range transport of air masses from lower latitudes. The principal scientific objective of the project EPOPEE in 2004 will focus on studying the aerosol-cloud interactions with particular attention given to the ice phase nucleation in Arctic mixed-phase clouds. The interpretation of the instrumental observations will broadly benefit from a very close cooperation with the LaMP modelling group for theoretically coupling small-scale processes (cloud particle nucleation) with meso-scale dynamics. Furthermore, the project will focus on cloud-radiation interaction and the development of adequate methods to validate cloud parameters retrieved from remote sensing techniques. Therein, we will experimentally answer the question of how the different ice crystal shapes govern the scattering phase function of respective crystals. Moreover, the in situ cloud measurements will allow to develop an adequate strategy for the interpretation of remote sensing data from a depolarisation Lidar onboard the same aircraft (Polar-2).
The 2004-2007 scientific research program CHIMERPOL II consists in improving the results obtained during the CHIMERPOL I programme around three main ideas: 1-Understand physico-chemical processes of oxidation of elemental gaseous mercury in the atmosphere during Mercury Depletion Events (MDE) in Corbel, Svalbard from 2004 to 2007 with a continuous monitoring station for gaseous mercury and its speciation, 2-Evaluate deposition and emission fluxes of mercury above the Arctic snow pack by a continuous monitoring of these fluxes in Corbel, Svalbard and in Station Nord, Greenland, from 2005 to 2007. 3-Determine the Air-Snow-Firn-Ice transfer function for mercury and its speciation with a complete balance of mercury in the different compartments in Summit, Greenland from 2006 to 2007.
This technological program aims to collect permanent informations on local meteorology and aerosols particles at Corbel Station, Svalbard, 6km east of Ny alesund. 78 54 N, 12 07 E Programme 2004 – 2005 April 2004 : Prticmle counter installation and collect datas from meteo Station. Soar cels will be also instlled at the station to power these systems.
The submitted proposal aims to perform the monitoring of the pollen rain in the Greenland atmosphere by distinguishing the local pollen production, relatively low, from pollen grains originating from other Arctic areas. A regular monitoring of the atmospheric pollen content must be performed in order to evaluate the amount emitted and characterise the seasonality of the emission. A comparison with air mass trajectories must allow the modelling of long distance transport
This technological program aims to collect permanent informations on local meteorology and aerosols particles at Corbel Station, Svalbard, 6km east of Ny alesund. 78 54 N, 12 07 E Programme 2004 – 2005 April 2004 : Prticmle counter installation and collect datas from meteo Station. Soar cels will be also instlled at the station to power these systems.
This technological program aims to get a better view of the Corbel site quality (78 54 N, 12 07 E, Svalbard close to Ny Alesunsd) for atmospheric chemistry. Nox and SO2 samplers are deployed on 16 places on a 4 km2 area around the Station (79°N, Svalbard), protected from snowscooters activity. The influence of Ny Alesund village is also studied. Programme 2004 April 2004 : poles installation and samplers deployment on the 16 stations; analysis will be made by CNR.
GPS has become an important tool both in navigation and in precise point positioning. One of the nuicance parameters limiting the accuracy of point determination is the water vapor content of the troposphere. On the other hand meteorologists are interested in the wet component of the troposphere as a valuable tool for Numerical Weather Prediction. Therefore GPS offers a low cost monitoring of water vapor with high temporal resolution. We make use of continuous measurements of the GPS/GLONASS reference station network in Austria, which currently consists of about 30 sites with distances ranging from 50 km to 120 km. We calculate the zenith wet delays for a period of 2 months (February and March 2002). Subsequently the results are compared to contributions of different processing centers of the COST-716 project ?Exploitation of Ground Based GPS for Climate and NWP? and with zenith path delay estimates provided by the IGS. As meteorologists need the water vapor within less than two hours, special attention is paid to the availability, reliability and especially to the quality of the satellite orbits used for the network calculations.
It is well known that the atmosphere is a conveyor of microorganisms, and that bacteria can act as ice or cloud condensation nuclei, but clouds have not been considered as a site where organisms can live and reproduce. We could show that bacteria in cloud droplets collected at high altitudes are actively growing and reproducing at temperatures at or below 0°C. Since ~60% of the earth surface is covered by clouds, cloud water should be considered as a microbial habitat.
It is well known that tritium, the hydrogen isotope 3H, is part of nuclear weapons and was spread all over the world as a consequence of nuclear bomb explosions. Rarely it is regarded as being “natural”, but actually it is. Long time before humans appeared tritium already existed on earth for a long time. This “natural” tritium is the product of cosmic radiation interactions with the atmosphere (mainly N-14). Nowadays this kind of tritium production contributes only to a small extent to the atmospheric tritium. Tritium is radioactive and decays with a half-life of 4.500 days under the emission of a very low energetic beta-particle. In the atmosphere tritium can be found within water vapour (HTO), hydrogen (HT) or methane (CH3T). Yet, the main portion of tritium released during the 1960’s has already been eliminated from the atmosphere by radioactive decay and precipitation. A large amount is captured in the oceans. Indeed, today anthropogenic sources releasing tritium to the environment can still be found. At the end of the 1980‘s contacts with research institutes in former Eastern Bloc countries lead to the idea of establishing a tritium sampling network. The primary goal was the documentation of atmospheric tritium. Statements about potential releases and their sources and the radiation hazards associated should be obtained. Furthermore it might help with the verification of meteorological models. To acquire comparable results a standardised sampling device was developed. This system simultaneously collects samples of air humidity and hydrogen. It was planned to enlist the gathered data in a database and to use them for the following subjects: • observation of local and global tritium transport in the atmosphere • detecting tritium releases and locating their sources • radiation risk evaluation • examining the transmutation of elemental hydrogen into water under natural conditions With the breakdown of the Eastern Bloc the idea of this common network faded away. At the moment only at two stations in Austria air humidity and air hydrogen are collected as planned: since 1991 at Research Center Arsenal in Vienna and since 1999 at Hoher Sonnblick a high mountain station (3160 m). Currently we are working together with the IAEA on a project with the aim to find a model, which helps evaluating weather conditions and in particular the climatic processes. As for these investigations the stable isotopes H-2 and O-18 are used and the currently used device introduces fractionation a new method is developed right now. Since the specific tritium activity concentration is not affected by air pressure or humidity the values for the two locations can be compared directly. In general the measured values are similar but sometimes differ noticeably. For example a peak value for the tritium activity concentration observed during March 2000 at Sonnblick was not noticed in Vienna. In this context the attempt should be made to analyse the air flows with the help of trajectories. The tritium activity concentration of air humidity is primarily determined by the amount of humidity itself. Therefore the concentration is directly linked to the seasons. Only significant changes in the specific tritium activity concentration can be detected by the use of the tritium activity concentration. Seasonal variations within the tritium activity concentration of hydrogen could not be observed. The values vary around 10 mBq/m3.
The 2003 field activity will be mainly dedicated to coring activity which includes: 1. the sampling of snow and ice cores from a Ny-Ålesund nearby glacier (midre Lovenbreen). 2. the collection of near coast (Kongsfjorden) and lakes sediments (maximum under pack depth 30 m). Sampling collection of ice and sediment cores will be performed using a portable, electric operated, sampling corer. The transport of all materials up to each sampling station should be performed with snowcats.
One of the major benefits of performing measurements at Ny-Ålesund is the availability of a monitoring station on Mount Zeppelin, 474m asl. Given the typical height of the Arctic inversion layer during the envisaged measurement period, it will be possible to continuously monitor mercury and particulate in the free troposphere at the same time as performing ground level monitoring. The simultaneous measurements above and below the boundary layer should provide evidence for the mode of elemental Hg replenishment, whether it is from due to exchange with the free troposphere, or transport occurring at sea level. The proposed collaboration, by collecting data from two strategically placed Arctic stations, in the paths of different air masses and data from above the Arctic inversion layer would provide the most comprehensive set of Arctic mercury measurements performed to date.