Finland: projects/activities

National Environmental Monitoring Programme in Sweden, in the "Air" programme area. Eleven chemical parameters are measured in precipitation every month, and in the air Hg (TGM and TPM) is measured weekly. Measurements are carried out at 4 stations in Sweden and one in Finland.  The project is part of an international network that follows the variations in the levels and deposition of heavy metals, particularly mercury, in the Arctic region.

National Environmental Monitoring Programme in Sweden. Measurements of persistant organic pollutants in air and precipitation are carried out at Råö, Hallahus, Aspvreten, and in Pallas (Northern Finland). The monitoring programme includes measurements of: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), some pesticides (HCH, DDT) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDE).

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.

Distributed network (about 180 sites over Finland). Coverage over Finland mainly according to WMO recommendations including all Finnish polar regions. Some of the stations also include automatic daily snow depth observations and soil moisture monitoring instrumentation. Network type: Automatic operational weather station observations

Purpose is to estimate the pollution fallout in rain. Rainwater is analyzed for acidifying compounds, nutrients, POPs and metals. Project is managed by Finnish Environmental Centre (SYKE) and Finnish Meteorological institute (FMI).

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.

Part of the continuous nationwide monitoring of radionuclides in Finland. The dose rate monitoring network in Finnish Lapland comprise 32 automatic measurement stations (Finnish nation-wide monitoring network consists of about 257 stations equipped with GM tubes). Three of the stations are equipped with LaBr3-detectors measuring a gammaspectrum with 10 minute intervals. The network is intended for civilian defence and surveillance purposes, not for research. It is a good early warning system in radiation fallout situation. Every monitoring station have individual alarm level: 7 days average dose rate + 0.1 microSv/h. The dense network indicate also the extent of the radioactive contamination.

Part of the continuous nationwide monitoring of radionuclides in Finland. The dose rate monitoring network in Finnish Lapland comprise 32 automatic measurement stations (Finnish nation-wide monitoring network consists of about 257 stations equipped with GM tubes). Three of the stations are equipped with LaBr3-detectors measuring a gammaspectrum with 10 minute intervals. The network is intended for civilian defence and surveillance purposes, not for research. It is a good early warning system in radiation fallout situation. Every monitoring station have individual alarm level: 7 days average dose rate + 0.1 microSv/h. The dense network indicate also the extent of the radioactive contamination.

Part of the continuous nationwide monitoring of radionuclides in Finland. STUK is responsible for monitoring of radioactivities in atmosphere. STUK operates a network of eight aerosol samplers from which three are located in Finnish, Lapland at Rovaniemi, Sodankylä and Ivalo. The sampling is done either weekly or bi-weekly. Gammaspectroscopic measurements are done in the laboratory in Rovaniemi. The lowest activities are detected at microBq/m3 level.

Monitoring of air quality and deposition.

Monitoring of direct deposition. Project is run by Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

The overall objectives for operation of the station will follow those defined in the AMAP programme. The main interests are the levels and trends of airborne toxic pollutants (POPs and heavy metals) in northern Fennoscandia.

The national program of intensive forest monitoring is managed by the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla). In 2011 five of the 18 Finnish intensive monitoring plots situated in Finnish Lapland (Fig. 5.1.: Sevettijärvi, Pallasjärvi and three plots in Kivalo). Finnish national intensive forest monitoring network is part of pan-European ICP Forests network of ca. 800 plots (http://icp-forests.net/page/level-ii). ICP Forests (the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests) operates under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. These intensive monitoring plots were established in co-operation of ICP Forests and European Commission in mid 1990’s. European Commission co-financed forest monitoring under forest monitoring regulations until the end of 2006 when the Forest Focus regulation (EC No 2152 / 2003) expired. During 2009-2011 part of these intensive forest monitoring plots were included in Life+-project called “FutMon” (Further Development and Implementation of an EU-level Forest Monitoring System: http://www.futmon.org/). Monitoring is carried out following the manual of ICP Forests (http://icp-forests.net/page/icp-forests-manual) and the monitoring data is submitted once a year to the ICP Forests database in Hamburg. Every year Programme Coordinating Centre of ICP Forests publishes technical and executive reports on the condition of forests in Europe. ICP Forests monitoring activities provide information also for a number of criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management as defined by the Forest Europe Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe. Network type: National nation-wide monitoring

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 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.

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

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.