Thermodynamics, Aerosol, Clouds in the Polar Atmosphere
The polar regions are experiencing some of the most rapid climatic changes on Earth, manifesting in dramatic warming and loss of sea-ice at both poles. Key atmospheric contributions to the observed polar warming are transport and exchange of heat, mass and momentum, and related processes involving aerosols and clouds.
Observations
At the Atmosphere Observatory of the AWIPEV research base in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, we operate long-term observations of surface and upper-air meteorology, surface-based radiation, as well as remote sensing measurements of aerosols and thermodynamic parameters.
In Antarctica, atmospheric research is split into two observatories at the Neumayer Station. At the Meteorological Observatory Neumayer we acquire long-term observations of surface and upper-air meteorology, surface-based radiation, as well as remote some sensing of cloud properties. Furthermore the observatory performs three-hourly synoptical observations which are distributed via global WMO networks for operational weather forecasting. Atmospheric long-term observations concerning chemical processes and/or aerosol are performed in the Air Chemistry Observatory at Neumayer. Both observatories are crewed all year around and are operated in close collaboration.
In order to make use of our acquired long-term time series we collaborate with colleagues world-wide. We follow an open data policy and publish all our measurements for the community to use. New collaborations on facilitating our data are welcome.
Atmospheric measurements in Antarctica are also performed at some Automatic Weather Stations.
UAVs
Different types of unmanned aereal vehicles (UAVs) are used as measurement platforms for atmospheric observations, such as temperature, humidity or radiative fluxes. They provide valuable information that complement the stationary measurements at the sites, and they can target regions that are otherwise hard to sample. UAVs are deployed temporarily during dedicated campaigns and are operated from the Neumayer- and AWIPEV Stations, as well as from the research icebreaker Polarstern.
MOSAiC expedition
The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) was a major year-long campaign in the Central Arctic Sea ice, using the research icebreaker Polarstern. MOSAiC was a large international effort spearheaded by the Atmospheric Physics Section at AWI under the lead of Prof. Dr. Markus Rex. It involved more than 400 scientists and experts from 20 nations, who studied a full annual cycle of the Arctic Atmosphere, Sea ice, Ocean, Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem. Further information and scientific publications can be found at the MOSAiC webpage.
CMET ballons
CMET balloons are specially designed weather balloons in order to pursuing a Lagrangian approach. This means it will be observed the track changes in a moving air mass instead of observing changes in the atmosphere over a fixed location. The CMET balloons drift along with the air mass for as long as several days, providing us with data on the humidity, temperature and wind. We can adjust the balloons’ altitude by satellite link, which allows us to capture targeted profiles ranging from a few hundred metres to several kilometres above the ground.
For their research, the team will focus on comparatively warm, moist air masses transported to the Arctic. Once there, they cool and lose moisture through cloud formation and precipitation. Then cold, dry air masses are transported back southward, where they absorb heat and moisture over the open ocean. This perspective explains two different types of atmospheric conditions observed in winter during Arctic expeditions like MOSAiC: on the one hand, cloudy conditions, in which liquid water droplets in the clouds protect the sea-ice surface from further cooling; on the other, clear skies, where the sea-ice surface can emit heat into space with very little interference.
Focus Regions
Svalbard is a key region of climate change in the Arctic. On the one hand it is close to the Atlantic water inflow to the Central Arctic Ocean, and on the other hand it is located along the North Atlantic storm track. Changes observed in this region with increased heat advection can be seen as precursor for the future Arctic climate.
The Atmospheric Physics Section carries out a large number of atmospheric observations at the AWIPEV research base in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, and is also responsible for the overall scientific coordination of the station.
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The polar oceans in the Arctic and around Antarctica, characterized by their seasonal or year-round sea ice cover that is retreating at a rapid pace, currently undergo the strongest climate changes on the planet. At the same time, weather- and climate models show large uncertainties in the representation of processes surrounding these changes. This is because the understanding of Central Arctic climate processes is hampered by lacking observational data – especially in the winter season when thick ice and harsh weather conditions prevent even most icebreakers from entering this remote realm. We use RV Polarstern for measurements in the Arctic ocean and sea ice regions to enhance our understanding of atmospheric processes and their role for the other components of the climate system, such as during the MOSAiC campaign.
Projects
(AC)3 (DFG SFB/Transregio: 2016 - 2027) ArctiC Amplification: Climate relevant Atmospheric and surfaCe processes and feedback mechanism
CRiceS (EU H2020: 2021 - 2025)
Climate Relevant interactions and feedbacks: the key role of sea ice and Snow in the polar and global climate system
PolarRES (EU H2020: 2021 - 2025)
Polar Regions in the Earth System
SynopSys (BMBF: 2020 - 2024)
Synoptic events during MOSAiC and their Forecast Reliability in the Troposphere-Stratosphere System
Both polar observatories, AWIPEV and Neumayer, contribute with their measurements to the
Observational data is valorized in our section twofold.
- Observations are utilized for model validations and parameterization improvements on regional and local scales.
- Moreover, we apply regional model outputs for the interpretation of long term changes as observed e.g. at our AWIPEV station on Svalbard in a regional and Arctic wide context.
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Herrmann, R. M., Ritter, C., Böckmann, C., & Graßl, S. (2025). Improved Method for the Retrieval of Extinction Coefficient Profile by Regularization Techniques. Remote Sensing, 17(5), 841., doi:10.3390/rs17050841
Graßl, S. , Ritter, C. , Wilsch, J. , Herrmann, R. , Doppler, L. and Román, R. (2024) From Polar Day to Polar Night: A Comprehensive Sun and Star Photometer Study of Trends in Arctic Aerosol Properties in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard , Remote Sensing, 16 (19), p. 3725, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2024.107667
Eggers, N. , Graßl, S. and Ritter, C. (2024) Assessment of Hygroscopic Behavior of Arctic Aerosol by Contemporary Lidar and Radiosonde Observations , Remote Sensing, 16 (16), p. 3087, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16163087
M. Wendisch, S. Crewell, A. Ehrlich, A. Herber, B. Kirbus, C. Lüpkes, and M. Mech et al. (2024): Overview: quasi-Lagrangian observations of Arctic air mass transformations – introduction and initial results of the HALO–(AC)3 aircraft campaign. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 24(15):8865–8892, 2024. doi: 10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024
Mariani, Z. , Morris, S. M. , Uttal, T. , Akish, E. , Crawford, R. , Huang, L. , Day, J. , Tjernström, J. , Godøy, Ø. , Ferrighi, L. , Hartten, L. M. , Holt, J. , Cox, C. J. , O’Connor, E. , Pirazzini, R. , Maturilli, M., Prakash, G. , Mather, J. , Strong, K. , Fogal, P. , Kustov, V. , Svensson, G. , Gallagher, M. and Vasel, B. (2024) Special Observing Period (SOP) data for the Year of Polar Prediction site Model Intercomparison Project (YOPPsiteMIP) , Earth System Science Data, 16 (7), pp. 3083-3124. doi: 10.5194/essd-16-3083-2024
Jurányi, Z. , Zanatta, M. , Lund, M. T. , Samset, B. H. , Skeie, R. B. , Sharma, S. , Wendisch, M. and Herber, A. (2023) Atmospheric concentrations of black carbon are substantially higher in spring than summer in the Arctic, Communications Earth & Environment, 4 (1), p. 91 . doi: 10.1038/s43247-023-00749-x
Peng, S. , Yang, Q. , Shupe, M. D. , Xi, X. , Han, B. , Chen, D. , Dahlke, S. and Liu, C. (2023) The characteristics of atmospheric boundary layer height over the Arctic Ocean during MOSAiC), Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23 (15), pp. 8683-8703. doi: 10.5194/acp-23-8683-2023
Zanatta, M. , Mertes, S. , Jourdan, O. , Dupuy, R. , Järvinen, E. , Schnaiter, M. , Eppers, O. , Schneider, J., Jurányi, Z. and Herber, A. (2023) Airborne investigation of black carbon interaction with low-level, persistent, mixed-phase clouds in the Arctic summer, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23 (14), pp. 7955-7973. doi: 10.5194/acp-23-7955-2023
E. F. Akansu, Dahlke, S., H. Siebert, and M. Wendisch (2023) Evaluation of methods to determine the surface mixing layer height of the atmospheric boundary layer in the central Arctic during polar night and transition to polar day in cloudless and cloudy conditions. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics,23(24):15473–15489, 2023. doi: 10.5194/acp-23-15473-2023
F. Pithan, M. Athanase, Dahlke, S., A. Sánchez-Benítez, M. D. Shupe, A. Sledd, J. Streffing, G. Svensson, and T. Jung. Nudging allows direct evaluation of coupled climate models with in situ observations: a case study from the MOSAiC expedition. Geoscientific Model Development, 16(7):1857–1873, 2023. doi: 10.5194/gmd-16-1857-2023
Svensson, G. , Murto, S. , Shupe, M. D. , Pithan, F., Magnusson, L. , Day, J. J. , Doyle, J. D. , Renfrew, I. A. , Spengler, T. and Vihma, T. (2023) Warm air intrusions reaching the MOSAiC expedition in April 2020—The YOPP targeted observing period (TOP), Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 11 (1) . doi: 10.1525/elementa.2023.00016
Dahlke, S., Solbès, A. and Maturilli, M. (2022) Cold Air Outbreaks in Fram Strait: Climatology, Trends, and Observations During an Extreme Season in 2020 , Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 127 (3), pp. 1-18. doi: 10.1029/2021JD035741
Shestakova, A. , Chechin, D. , Lüpkes, C., Hartmann, J. and Maturilli, M. (2022) The foehn effect during easterly flow over Svalbard, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22 , pp. 1529-1548. doi: 10.5194/acp-22-1529-2022
J. Creamean, K. Barry, T. Hill, C. Hume, P. DeMott, M. Shupe, S. Dahlke, S. Willmes, J. Schmale, I. Beck, C. Hoppe, A. Fong, E. Chamberlain, J. Bowman, R. Scharien, and O. Persson. (2022): Annual cycle observations of aerosols capable of ice formation in central Arctic clouds. Nature Communications, 13(3537), 2022. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31182-x
Contact
AWIPEV, Meteorology
Dr Marion Maturilli
Neumayer and Polarstern, Meteorology
Dr Holger Schmithüsen
Aircraft Campaigns
Dr Andreas Herber
UAVs and Ship-based Campaigns
Dr Sandro Dahlke
Aerosol
Dr Christoph Ritter
Air Chemistry
Dr Zsofia Juranyi
Air-Mass Transformation
Dr Felix Pithan
