Sweden: projects/activities

In secretory cells of the vertebrate floor plate and subcommissural organ are descendant of an ontogenetically ancient type of radial glial cells.

The main objective of the project were to collect and process various different populations of selected benthic species to determine, in combination with existing research, the following:

To examine the effect of light intensity on swimming activity in Krill.

The main objective was to study the basic mechanism of ciliary upstream-collecting on a selected marine invertebrate.

Variation in primary sex characters of wrasse in relation to reproduction strategy and environmental conditions:

Five French Scientists orginating from the Observatoire Océnologique de Banyals, stayed at the Kristineberg Marine Station during two weeks.

To examine the way in which light intensity and spectrum affects the swimming behaviour and activity of the pelagic euphausiid Meganyctiphanes norvegica.

The project is part of a large comparative study on the evolution of the development of crutaceans, mainly malacostracans (higher crustaceans).

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.

This project will construct detailed phosphorus budgets for polar catchments occupied by glaciers and freshwater systems undergoing rapid response to climate warming. These are Midre Lovenbreen, Svalbard; Jebsen Creek, Signy Island (maritime Antarctic) and Storglaciaren, northern Sweden. The relationship between meltwater production, pathway and phosphorus liberation from glacial sediments will be examined closely. Emphasis will be given to phosphorus sorption dynamics in turbid glacial streams and their receiving waters (fjords and lakes).

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.

The DOAS instrument consists of grating spectrometer covering the visible and near ultraviolet spectral region. Zenith-scattered sunlight is collected by simple one-lens telescopes and fed via optical fiber bundles into the spectrometers, where atmospheric absorption spectra are obtained. The instrument runs automatically. Total column densities of the stratospheric trace species ozone, NO2, BrO, and OClO are retrieved from the spectra using the DOAS algorithm. These are species that play a major role in ozone chemistry, either by themselves in ozone destruction (BrO) or as indicators of chlorine activation/deactivation (OClO). The chemistry and dynamics of ozone destruction is investigated, e.g. with respect to the location of the polar vortex during the winter. The instrument is also useful for detection of polar stratospheric clouds using the zenith-sky colour index method.

FT-IR spectrometers are capable to quantifiy the total column amounts of many important trace gases in the troposphere and stratosphere. At present the following species are retrieved from the Kiruna data: O3 (ozone), ClONO2, HNO3, HCl, CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-22, NO2, N2O, NO, HF, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, CH4, CO, COF2, H2O, HCN, HO2NO2, NH3, N2, and OCS Selected research topics and activities: chemical ozone depletion by observation of key species (O3, ClONO2, HNO3, HCl, ..) details of the ozone formation process by isotopic studies in ozone profile retrieval to detect dynamical changes transport studies of chemical tracers and tropospheric pollutants satellite validation

FT-IR spectrometers are capable to quantifiy the total column amounts of many important trace gases in the troposphere and stratosphere. At present the following species are retrieved from the Kiruna data: O3 (ozone), ClONO2, HNO3, HCl, CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-22, NO2, N2O, NO, HF, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, CH4, CO, COF2, H2O, HCN, HO2NO2, NH3, N2, and OCS Selected research topics and activities: chemical ozone depletion by observation of key species (O3, ClONO2, HNO3, HCl, ..) details of the ozone formation process by isotopic studies in ozone profile retrieval to detect dynamical changes transport studies of chemical tracers and tropospheric pollutants satellite validation

Objective: to collect climatology information on the seasonal and year-to-tear variability of stratospheric CFCs, water vapour and atmospheric electrical parameters.

Objectives 1. To develop the measurement technique further, providing more accurate measurements and extend the method to a larger number of trace species 2. To monitor the presence of CFC:s and other longlived anthropogenic tracers in the stratosphere 3. To use long-lived anthropogenic species as tracers of atmospheric motion, in particular for comparison with atmospheric models Reserarchers: Descartes is a joint research programme currently involving N.R.P Harris and J.A. Pyle, Centre for Atmospheric Science at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, U.K., and Hans Nilsson and Johan Arvelius, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden

The atmosphere carries a continuous electric current and , even during fair weather, there is a strong electrostatic electric field, up to 200 volts per meter, close to the ground. This electric current is thought to be due to the accumulated effect of thousands of thunderstorms, mostly in the tropical regions of the Earth. These storms feed a current from the ground up to the ionosphere, a highly conducting layer in the atmosphere which lies above about 70 km altitude. The current spreads out around the globe through this layer and returns to Earth through the atmosphere as the 'fair weather current' outside the thunderstorm areas. Objective: Investigation of the part of the Earths global electrical circuit: fair weather current and its interaction with geomagnetic phenomena, such as, for example, a magnetic substorms. We use the data of the air-earth current measured by a long wire antenna installed in Kiruna/Esrange, Sweden. In July 1999 we have installed a new portable antenna at a distance of about 30 km from the old one. This antenna has a length of nearly 50 m, and we are recording the near ground vertical current with a time resolution of 10 seconds. The data from both instruments will be analysed together - for comparison and possible separation of the meteorological effects.

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.