Russia - Establishment of a cooperation on pollution levels and transport in the Arctic monitored at the Tiksi Observatory, Siberia

The Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) applies for support in order to establish a long-term cooperation with the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), St. Petersburg, Russia, on pollution level and transport studies in the Arctic. NILU intends to contribute to the instrumentation, the monitoring and the research programme of the atmospheric observatory at Tiksi, Siberia, which was re-established recently in a joint effort of AARI, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NO AA) of the United States, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). This is envisaged through a two-step process, namely an initial workshop with the involved institutions in order to define NILU's concrete role and contributions, and, secondly, wor king out a full proposal to the Research Council of Norway, e.g., in a future Norway-Russia cooperation programme. The envisaged project will hopefully: - Lead to a strongly enhanced cooperation between NILU, AARI, NOAA (and FMI) with the possibility to exchange students and senior scientists, especially from St. Petersburg - Contribute to and improve the international efforts to establish the Tiksi Observatory as a corner stone of the Arctic Atmospheric Observatories network, formalised in the IPY core project IASOA