Why focus on the Svalbard region?

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  a  precursor for the future Arctic climate.

The section “Atmospheric Physics” is operating a large part of the atmospheric observations at the AWIPEV research base in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard.

Observational topics are:

The AWIPEV atmospheric observations are integrated with observations by other stations in the Ny-Ålesund Atmosphere Flagship Program, and with Arctic wide observations in the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA). Major activities are related to various research projects as e.g. AC3, Quarccs, and StratoClim.