Projects/Activities

Projektet har til formål at forlænge og forbedre monitering af to strømsystemer gennem færøsk territorialfarvand, som udveksler vand, varme og salt mellem Arktis og resten af Verdenshavet. Den ene af disse er strømmen af koldt vand fra Arktis gennem dybet af Færøbanke kanalen, som transporterer varme og kuldioxid fra atmosfæren ned i Verdenshavets dybe vandmasser. Den anden er Færøstrømmen, som er den stærkeste transportør af ocean varme mod Arktis med indvirkning på klima, fiskebestande og isudbredelse. Endvidere vil projektet studere opsplitningen af Færøstrømmen i to separate strømgrene med forskellig indflydelse på forskellige områder og processer i Arktis. Projektet vil omfatte feltaktivitet fra sommer 2017 til sommer 2018 med udlagte måleinstrumenter og tilsammen fire hydrografiske togter med forskningsskib. Indsamlede måledata vil blive analyseret sammen med satellit­data og historiske observationer med henblik på at forlænge de ca. 20 år lange tidsserier for de to strømsystemers transporter samt at rationalisere det eksisterende moniteringssystem, således at det i fremtiden vil være mindre afhængigt af kostbare in situ målinger.

Denmark has obligations according to the agreements in the Montreal Protocol, ie. for the monitoring of the ozone layer. This project is a fullfilment of these obligations, and the work is being supported by the Danish Environment Protection Agency (Danish EPA) through a DANCEA funding. Recommandations for the monitoring are updated every 3rd year via the Ozone Research Managers (ORM) Meeting at WMO in Geneva. The most recent meeting was in 2017. The monitoring program was initiated in 2002. The current partnership consists of Latmos (FR), NASA (US) and DMI (DK). Monitoring of the ozone layer and measurement of the UV radiation currently takes place in 2 locations in Greenland: Kangerlussuaq and Ittoqqortoormiit. In Kangerlussuaq the instrumentation consists of a Brewer spectrometer capable of measuring the ozone column and doing UVB scans, a SAOZ spectrometer measuring ozone and NO2, and an Aeronet Sun Photometer (hosted for NASA). In Ittoqqortoormiit the instrumentation consists of an ozone balloon borne sounding station, a SAOZ spectrometer (hosted for Latmos), a GUV 2511 broadband instrument and an Aeronet Sun Photometer (hosted for NASA). Retrieved data is uploaded to international databases (WOUDC, NDACC & NILU). Retrieved data is used to correct satellite measurements and to monitor the state of the ozone layer.

The objective of the station is to facilitate ecosystem research in the High Arctic. According to the framework programme of Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations (ZERO) this includes: - Basic quantitative documentation of ecosystem structure and processes; - Baseline studies of intrinsic short-term and long-term variations in ecosystem functions; - Retrospective analyses of organic and inorganic material to detect past ecosystem changes; - Experimental studies enabling predictions of ecosystem responses to Global Change. The programme is coordinated with Nuuk Ecological Research Operations (see below) within the Framework of Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM). Main gaps: Winter dynamics

The objective is to allow comparative studies of ecosystem dynamics in relation to climate variability and change in respectively a high arctic and low arctic setting as Nuuk Basic comprises the same components as Zackenberg. According to the framework programme of Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations (ZERO) this includes: - Basic quantitative documentation of ecosystem structure and processes; - Baseline studies of intrinsic short-term and long-term variations in ecosystem functions; - Retrospective analyses of organic and inorganic material to detect past ecosystem changes; - Experimental studies enabling predictions of ecosystem responses to Global Change. The programme is coordinated with Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations (see above) within the Framework of Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM). Main gaps: Winter dynamics

In 2013 a new ecosystem monitoring programme “DiskoBasis” was initiated at Arctic Station on Disko Island, Greenland. The project is partly funded by the Danish Energy Agency. The primary objective of DiskoBasis is to establish baseline knowledge on the dynamics of fundamental physical parameters within the environment/ecosystem around Arctic Station. This initiative extends and complements the existing monitoring carried out at Arctic Station by including several new activities –especially within the terrestrial and hydrological/fluvial field. DiskoBasis include collection of data in the following sub-topics; • Gas flux, meteorology and energy balance • Snow, ice and permafrost • Soil and soil water chemistry • Vegetation phenology • Hydrology -River water discharge and chemistry • Limnology -Lake water chemistry • Marine -Sea water chemistry

The WOW project is a cooperation between Havstovan (Faroe Marine Research Institute, HAV) and the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) to 1) measure the overflow of cold water from the Arctic into the rest of the World Ocean through the Western Valley of the Iceland-Faroe Ridge, to 2) allow the effects of this flow to be adequately simulated in climate model projections of the thermohaline circulation and the heat transport towards the Arctic, and to 3) design a low-cost monitoring system for this flow.

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.

The GeoBasis programme collects data describing the physical and geomorphological environment in Zackenberg, North East Greenland. This includes meteorology, carbon flux and energy exchange, snow cover and permafrost, soil moisture, –chemistry and nutrient balance, hydrology, river discharge and – sediment

Monitoring climatological and hydrological parameters in a low arctic environment.

This project is now part of the project : Acidifying and Eutrophifying Substances in Air and Precipitation

National Environmental Monitoring in Sweden. The project is included in a European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme network (EMEP). The subprogram main task is to check if international agreements as UN Convention on Long range Trans-boundary Air Pollution (CLTRAP) is followed. The measurements follow up the Swedish national generational goals "Natural Acidification Only", "A Non-Toxic Environment" and "Clean Air". The network comprises 10 stations, out of which three are in north Sweden, the two one are in AMAP area. Air chemistry is monitored by diffusion samplers. The following compounds are measured: SO2, SO4, tot-NH4, tot-NO3, soot, NO2. Precipitation quality is monitored following measured compounds: SO4-S, NO-N, Cl, NH4-N, Ca, Mg, Na, K, pH, EC. Metals in air and precipitation are analysed only at one north station (Bredkälen), and include: As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, V, Hg, methyl-Hg.

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.

Ice sheet meltwater and sediment discharge is measured at only very few sites in Greenland. The measurements provide detailed insights into ice sheet surface melting, englacial meltwater routing, subglacial erosion, etc., and their importance increase with the lengthening of the time series. Monitoring was initiated by IGN (Copenhagen University) in 2006, and taken over by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland in 2014. Data are available through the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (www.PROMICE.dk).

At the Zeppelin Station on Svalbard, Stockholm University, Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES) measures trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide in background atmosphere (Table 4, #1.6, Table 5, ##3–4). In collaboration with NOAA/CMDL in Boulder, USA, air is regularly sampled in flasks for analysis of CO2, CH4, CO, 13CO2, H2, N2O, SF6, and 18O in CO2. At the top of the micrometeorological tower (102 m) at Norunda north of Uppsala, carbon dioxide and methane concentrations are also measured (Fig. 2, Table 5, #5). Other sites for CO2 measurements are the flux sites described below. Air samples are taken at 10 sites in northern Sweden for analysis of SO2, NO2, and surface-near ozone (Fig. 2, Table 4, #1.2) in the air- and precipitation chemistry network. At the Zeppelin Station on Svalbard, Stockholm University, Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES) also measures the amount and composition of aerosols in the background atmosphere. Measurements include particle concentration and size distribution, light absorption and scattering, and cloud residual properties (cloud residuals are the particles which took part in cloud droplet or ice crystal formation)

Arctic study of trophospheric aerosol, clouds and radiation

FUVIRC will serve ecosystem research, human health research and atmospheric chemistry research by providing UV monitoring data and guidance (i.e. calibration of instruments, maintenance of field test sites), research facilities (laboratories and accommodation), instruments and equipment.

The main objective of the facility is to enhance the international scientific co-operation at the seven Finnish research stations and to offer a very attractive and unique place for multidisciplinary environmental and atmospheric research in the most arctic region of the European Union. Factors such as, arctic-subarctic and alpine-subalpine environment, northern populations, arctic winters with snow, changes in the Earth's electromagnetic environment due to external disturbances and exceptionally long series of observations of many ecological and atmospheric variables should interest new users.