The critical gaps in surface atmospheric composition measurements in the Arctic
Abstract
The atmospheric composition measurements include a vast variety of parameters, both gaseous and particulates, of which many are truly essential for the Arctic climate and environment monitoring, but also critical in understanding the global climate and circulation changes. Examples of those parameters, here assessed by the INTAROS community with the help of several data providers, are ozone, greenhouse gases, aerosol particle number, and particle size distribution. The heterogeneity of the Arctic in terms of sources, sinks, transportation and transformation of these compounds is one of the key observations and motivates the set limits for required observations spatial resolution. In addition, the lack of process level understanding especially in the wintertime Arctic further highlights the need of continuous, long-term observation networks. While a lot of progress has been made in understanding and resolving some of the Arctic climate challenges, for example the ozone depletion and the phenomena of the Arctic Haze, new challenges are constantly appearing and with an accelerated rate. In these, pertain the natures' response to the changing climate, consequences of the melting sea ice and the Arctic ecosystems adaptation, in which understanding the atmospheric composition currently and historically is essential. The longest data series assessed were those of atmospheric ozone, some gaseous pollutants and more recently the measurements of particles. Data in general are sparse and the summertime campaigns complement those from the view existing year-round stations. The current development towards more harmonized, standard observational networks can already be seen having increased the inter-comparability of the data, and can be expected to bring some additional guarantee of longevity for the existing observations. Data documentation, sharing and openness as well show some improve, although still far from the expectations of the user communities. However, one challenge to resolve after is to meet the requirements of spatial coverage, including continuous observations from the central Arctic.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.A24K..17A
- Keywords:
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- 0399 General or miscellaneous;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0434 Data sets;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0799 General or miscellaneous;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 4299 General or miscellaneous;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL