Atmospheric composition in the European Arctic and 30 years of the Zeppelin Observatory, Ny-Ålesund
Platt, Stephen M.; Hov, Øystein; Berg, Torunn; Breivik, Knut; Eckhardt, Sabine; Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos; Evangeliou, Nikolaos; Fiebig, Markus; Fisher, Rebecca; Hansen, Georg; Hansson, Hans Christen; Heintzenberg, Jost; Hermansen, Ove; Heslin-Rees, Dominic; Holmén, Kim; Hudson, Stephen; Kallenborn, Roland; Krejci, Radovan; Krognes, Terje; Larssen, Steinar; Lowry, David; Myhre, Cathrine Lund; Lunder, Chris; Nisbet, Euan; Nizzetto, Pernilla B.; Park, Ki Tae; Pedersen, Christina A.; Pfaffhuber, Katrine Aspmo; Röckmann, Thomas; Schmidbauer, Norbert; Solberg, Sverre; Stohl, Andreas; Ström, Johan; Svendby, Tove; Tunved, Peter; Tørnkvist, Kjersti; Van Der Veen, Carina; Vratolis, Stergios; Yoon, Young Jun; Yttri, Karl Espen; Zieger, Paul; Aas, Wenche; Tørseth, Kjetil
(2022) Atmospheric chemistry and physics, volume 22, issue 5, pp. 3321 - 3369
(Article)
Abstract
The Zeppelin Observatory (78.90°;N, 11.88°;E) is located on Zeppelin Mountain at 472 m a.s.l. on Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago. Established in 1989, the observatory is part of Ny-Ålesund Research Station and an important atmospheric measurement site, one of only a few in the high Arctic, and
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a part of several European and global monitoring programmes and research infrastructures, notably the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP); the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP); the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW); the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS); the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) network; and the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS). The observatory is jointly operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Stockholm University, and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU). Here we detail the establishment of the Zeppelin Observatory including historical measurements of atmospheric composition in the European Arctic leading to its construction. We present a history of the measurements at the observatory and review the current state of the European Arctic atmosphere, including results from trends in greenhouse gases, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), other traces gases, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals, aerosols and Arctic haze, and atmospheric transport phenomena, and provide an outline of future research directions.
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Keywords: Atmospheric Science
ISSN: 1680-7316
Publisher: Copernicus Publications
Note: Funding Information: The final decision to build the observatory on Mt Zeppelin was taken in 1987 by the Norwegian Ministry of Environment. In early spring 1988, a Norwegian governmental directorate (SBED – Statens bygge-og eiendomsdirektorat) was given the task to build the observatory, and the actual work on site was carried out in the summer of 1988. Access via a lift was commissioned in 1988, and the installation was carried out during the summer of 1989. The total cost of the observatory and lift was NOK 11.4 million (Norwegian kroner), funded by the Ministry of Environment. NPI is the owner of the observatory while all three partners (NPI, NILU, and Stockholm University – SU) form the consortium responsible for its operation. Funding for scientific equipment and research programmes came from the Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Technical Research (NTNF), later merged into the Research Council of Norway (RCN). Later funding from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1994 allowed the construction of a roof over the arrival space for the lift and the entrance to the observatory, a necessity for safety reasons due to snow drift which at times prevented safe access to the observatory. Due to structural problems with the first building (water leaks, poor insulation, and larger snow loads than anticipated) but more importantly the need for more space for instrumentation, the building was replaced in 1999 (inaugurated 2 May 2000) with the successor of SBED, Statsbygg, as the responsible builder again and with funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Environment. Approximately 33 % of the investment for the new building came from the Swedish Wallenberg Foundations. Funding Information: Financial support. This research has been supported by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (grant no. 211-21-011); Norwegian Environment Agency (grant no. 21087006); ICOS Norway, Research Council of Norway (grant no. 296012); and Atmos-færiske miljøgifter 2021–2025, Norwegian Environment Agency (grant no. 21087020). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Authors.
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