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SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Lunar Arctic-coordinated remote sensing of aerosols: LUNAR photometry close the gap in ARCTIC aerosol climatology and satellite validation

Awarded: NOK 0.40 mill.

Project Manager:

Project Number:

236774

Project Period:

2014 - 2016

Funding received from:

Partner countries:

In the context of a rapidly changing environment, collaborative efforts are essential to understand and to mitigate agents that contribute to modifications in the polar regions. Arctic aerosols have been studied intensively since many year. Nevertheless, there remain recognized deficiencies in Arctic AOD climatologies. These arise primarly from the long polar night, inhibiting passive remote sensing observations (ground-based sun-photometer operating in the UV/Vis wavelength regions). Connected with this, there is a clear lack of valiadation data needed to improve satellite algorithms for polar aerosols. To overcome these deficiencies, the LUNAR ARCTIC project is proposed. The main objective of the project is to perform coordinated aerosol observations at Ny-Ålesund and Hornsund. It is planned to deploy a LUNAR photometry to Ny-Ålesund in spring 2014 and winter/spring 2014/15. Quality assured AOD and backscatter/extinction data from ground-based lunar, sun-, star photometer and LIDAR will be obtained. This dataset will improve our understanding of the onset of the Arctic haze season and we will be able to close the gap in the annual cycle of the ARCTIC aerosol climatology. Futhermore, this initiavitve will contribute to develop Svalbard into a key site for satellite validation, which is especially important for the upcoming lidar missions like EarthCARE. Researchers from six institutions NILU, ISAC-CNR, AWI, PMOD/WRC, NOAA/CIRES, and IGF-PAS propose coordinated efforts in Svalbard and at the same time intend to reach out to other Polar-Arctic initiatives, for example ongoing at Barrow and planned for ALOMAR. This project responds not only to the pure scientific needs, but also to the vision of SIOS to better estimate future environmental and climate c hanges in the Arctic through collaborative use of the Svalbard research infrastructure, data sharing and knowledge management within the international research community.

Funding scheme:

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum