Harmonising Environmental Research and Monitoring of Priority Pollutants and Impurities in the Svalbard Atmosphere (HERMOSA)
Year: 2023
Type: report
Abstract: This is chapter 4 of the State of Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report 2022. Many characteristics of atmospheric air are measured in Svalbard, including levels of chemical pollution, dark dust connected to soot, and living organisms, but most of these studies happen in Ny-Ålesund. Air monitoring was initiated as early as the 1970s, and multiple atmospheric components have been added to the monitoring over time (especially since 2010; in the early 2000s a few parameters measured at Hornsund joined the regular programme). New types of contaminants are being discovered and measured in Svalbard. Methods for detecting simpler substances and particles have been established for a long time, while certain complex chemicals and small living organisms are more difficult to capture and study. Laboratory and field equipment upgrades help improve understanding of the Svalbard environment. In this chapter, we find that collecting information on many characteristics of the air at the same time helps solve long-standing scientific questions in Svalbard, such as the origins of pollution in the Arctic air and the future of the Arctic atmosphere in a changing world. This is especially important since the Arctic is changing fast, both due to global warming and to the shift in local people’s activity from mining to services, e.g. tourism.
Source: HAL
Institutions: Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk University of Technology, University Centre in Svalbard, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, École Centrale de Lyon, National Research Council, Istituto di Scienze Polari, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Masaryk University, University of Wrocław, Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, British Antarctic Survey, Northumbria University, Instytut Oceanologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, University of Perugia
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Alberta Agricultural Research Institute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Korea Polar Research Institute, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Università degli Studi di Genova, Norges Forskningsråd, Università degli Studi di Torino, National Institute of Polar Research, Masarykova Univerzita, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nuclear Physics
Awards: G6243031498, G6765013817
OpenAlex ID: W4317768829