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INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF METEOROLOGY AND ATMOSPHERIC
SCIENCE (IAMAS) - 2006
Reporter.
1. ACTIVITIES
1.1
UNIVERSITY
OF
HELSINKI,
DEPARTMENT
SCIENCES, DIVISION OF ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
OF
PHYSICAL
During 2006, meteorological research was made in the areas
of climate studies, mesoscale meteorology, radar meteorology
and micrometerology. Other main branch of the Division was
the research on atmospheric aerosols and their climate and
health effects and air chemistry. Six professors and about
70 scientists (including doctoral students) worked in the
division in 2006. In 2006 two new EU projects started:
NITROEUROPE (The Nitrogen Cycle and its Influence on the
European Greenhouse Gas Balance) and EUSAAR (European supersites for atmospheric aerosol Research, 2006-2010). Division
possesses Research Unit on “Physics, Chemistry and Biology
of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change”, which is one
of the Centres of Excellence of the Academy of Finland. The
aerosol group co-ordinates also Nordic Centre of Excellence
“Biosphere-Aerosol-Cloud-Climate
Interactions”
and
the
micrometeorology group belongs to the Nordic Centre of
Excellence “Nordic Centre for studies of ecosystem Carbon
exchange and interactions with a Climate system “. These
form also the international NordForsk Graduate School
“Carbon-Biosphere-Aerosol-Cloud-Climate
Interactions”.
A
project office “Integrated Land Ecosystem – Atmosphere
Processes
Study”
(iLEAPS;
http://www.atm.helsinki.fi/ILEAPS/) has continued its work
related to land-atmosphere interactions within International
Geosphere – Biosphere Programme (IGBP).
Dynamic and experimental meteorology
In mesoscale meteorology, emphasis was on boundary layer
theory,
stable
boundary
layers,
radiation-turbulence
interaction, strong low-level jets over the Gulf of
Finland, Antarctic studies, and the PBL on planet Mars. The
UH mesoscale model, MM5 and HIRLAM were used as modelling
tools together with various observations. The Division
housed the EU Marie Curie Chair on PBL-TMRES (PBL - Theory,
Modelling and Role in Earth Systems, with prof. Sergej
Zilitinkevich as the Chair Holder), and coordinated the
Nordic project NetFAM (Network on Fine-mesh Atmospheric
Modelling). Prof. David Schultz started his work in
November 2006 in co-operation with Finnish Meteorological
Institute and Vaisala Ltd.
Studies of climate focused on an analysis of extremes in
high-resolution
regional
climate
change
simulations
conducted at the Rossby Centre (Sweden), and on a
probabilistic analysis of near-future climate changes based
on
a
new
multi-model
ensemble
of
global
climate
simulations. The leader of this research team participated
as a lead author in the preparation of the IPCC Working
Group I 4th Assessment Report to be published in the year
2007.
Radar meteorology continued as one of the main research
objects. The UH Weather radar laboratory has the highest
expertise in Finland on weather radars and is well known
world wide. The new polarimetric radar prototype was in
extensive use during 2006 and the measurements were able to
cover all polarimetric parameters.
Micrometeorology and Atmospheric aerosols
Studies
of
micrometeorology
and
biosphere-atmosphere
exchange have included continuous measurements of various
trace gases, water vapour and aerosol particles by eddy
covariance methods. CO2 measurements are carried out for
forest
(Hyytiälä,
Juupajoki),
wetland
(Siikaneva,
Juupajoki), lake ecosystems (Valkea-Kotinen, Lammi) and
urban surface (Kumpula, Helsinki). In addition, long-term
methane fluxes have been collected over wetland. Also
measurements
under
canopy
in
trunk-space
have
been
accomplished. Beside turbulent transport, the importance of
advective fluxes was studied over the forest. The 1.5-order
boundary-layer closure model was used in analyses of flow
in
heterogenous
surfaces
and
applied
for
footprint
estimates. Evapo-transpiration measurements are supported
by studies of water cycling in trees.
The core of the research is the understanding of energy,
mass
and
momentum
transfer
and
phase
transitions.
Theoretical,
modelling
and
experimental
studies
of
nucleation,
condensation/evaporation
and
atmospheric
aerosol dynamics have continued in 2006. The results on
modelling, field measurements and laboratory experiments
are used for improved understanding of cloud microphysics,
climate change and health effects. Division operates
together with Department of Forest Ecology at versatile
field stations:
SMEAR I (Station for Measuring Forest
Ecosystem-Atmosphere
Relations)
station
in
Värriö
(Lapland), SMEAR II station and SMEAR III (urban SMEAR) in
Kumpula Campus. Particularly SMEAR II has turned out to be
a leading station in its research field due to its
comprehensive research program and to its unique time
series of fresh aerosol formation.
1.2 FINNISH METEOROLOGICAL INSTITUTE (FMI)
In 2006, research was continued in the areas of atmospheric
modelling, climate change and its impacts as well as
adaptation to climate change, air quality and chemistry,
ozone and UV – radiation, and further development of the
use of satellite and weather radar data.
Climate change
In the research on climate change, the focus has changed
more towards the adaptation of climate change. In the
adaptation studies the occurrence of extremes and the
possible changes in the occurrences are now in focus. FMI
has contributed to a new research program for the
adaptation to climate change, coordinated by the Ministry
for Agriculture and Forestry, as well as to Climate Change
Communications Programme.
The research on global change is directed towards the
inclusion of the atmospheric chemistry in the numerical
models. Also other gases but carbon dioxide (and other
greenhouse gases) and ozone are considered. Aerosols are
becoming more important all the time. FMI continued as the
national co-ordinator in the IPCC – climate group and
coordinated the Finnish part of the preparation of the 4th
IPCC Assessment Report. FMI coordinated a Nordic project
called NORDKLIM concerning climate change and adaptation
between the Nordic meteorological institutes. FMI also
produced a great part of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM)
coordinated report on the Baltex Assessment of Climate
Change for the Baltic Sea Basin (BACC).
The Finnish Meteorological Institute has an en extensive
collaboration agreement with the Max Planck Institute for
Meteorology in Hamburg, concerning the modelling of global
change in the atmosphere. Funded by the Ministry of
Transport and Communications, work on the modelling was
continued in collaboration with the Finnish Institute of
Marine Research, the Universities of Helsinki and Kuopio,
and the Finnish IT Center for Science (CSC). The FMI’s
research concentrated on such phenomena as clouds, transfer
of radiation, atmospheric chemistry and fine particles.
As an important element of the research on global change,
the exchange of greenhouse gases between the atmosphere and
different landcover types is studied experimentally. In
2006, micrometeorological measurements of carbon dioxide,
water vapour, sensible heat and momentum fluxes were
carried out on a continuous basis above forest ecosystems
at Pallas, Sodankylä and Loppi and on subarctic wetlands at
Pallas and Kaamanen. In addition, methane emissions were
measured at Pallas and on the Ämmässuo landfill in Espoo.
Based on the flux data, including the data collected within
previous measurement campaigns, the carbon balances of
different ecosystems and landfills were determined and the
related surface exchange processes were studied.
The studies on greenhouse gas fluxes are part of the
activities of a Centre of Excellence of the Academy of
Finland (Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Atmospheric
Composition and Climate Change) and a Nordic Centre of
Excellence (Nordic Centre for Studies of Ecosystem Carbon
Exchange and Interactions with a Climate System). Some of
the flux measurements are carried out within the EU-funded
CARBOEUROPE (Assessment of the European Terrestrial Carbon
Balance) project In 2006, activities related to the new EUfunded NITROEUROPE (The Nitrogen Cycle and Its Influence on
the European Greenhouse Gas Balance) project were started
at Pallas.
Numerical weather prediction
The forecast errors of the HIRLAM Forecasting System (HFS)
were significantly reduced in 2006. The improvements were
achieved mainly by more efficient use of observations and
ECMWF-forecasts in defining the initial conditions. Because
operating and monitoring the reference HFS is one of the
contributions to HIRLMA-A, the updates were immediately
implemented
and
thus
benefitted
operational
weather
prediction in Finland.
A regularly-running test suite of the non-hydrostatic mesoscale NWP model AROME was commenced in may 2006. AROME is
developed jointly by Meteo France, the ALADIN consortium
and HIRLAM-A. The contribution of FMI is dedicated to the
modelling of physical processes related to moist physics
and convection, and in the boundary layer, as well as on
the assimilation of doppler radar radial wind data and GNS
slant delay data.
The LAPS analysis system based on data fusion techniques
was adapted to ingest observations from the Helsinki
Testbed field campaign, and yield a meso-scale gridded
analysis of near surface conditions and upper air fields.
Together with scientists from the University of Turku the
particle dispersion moded SILAM was adapted to forecasting
long-range
transport
of
allergenic
pollen.
Extensive
numerical
simulation
experiments
for
assessing
the
potential of wind energy production were carried out in El
Salvador and in the North Sea. The operational road
conditions model was updated to cater for changes in the
available observations.
Within the network on fine-scale atmospheric modelling NetFAM, FMI took a main part in organizing and providing
lecturers to the Summer School on Nonhydrostatic dynamics
and fine scale data assimilation in St. Petersburg, 1117.6.2006, and the Summer school on Air-sea-interaction in
Helsinki on the 28.8.-1.9.2006.
A new research activity in 2006 is the 6th framework
integrated project DAMOCLES, where FMI is leader of the
work package "Atmosphere and and air-ice interaction".
Atmospheric chemistry
An
extensive
measurement
programme
on
atmospheric
composition was carried out at the Pallas-Sodankylä station
in Lapland, maintained by the FMI as part of the Global
Atmosphere Watch network of the World Meteorological
Organization.
The
high-accuracy
measurements
of
CO2
concentration (running since 1996) and CH4 , CO and SF6
concentrations (running since 2004) were continued. In
2006, monitoring of the atmospheric hydrogen concentration
was started.
New information was gained from measurements at the WMO
Pallas GAW station, measurements which have been published
and used and highly appreciated by the international and
European science community. It contains new information of
how aerosol particles, both natural and those due to human
activities, interact with clouds and has impact on climate
change. The effect of boreal forest to atmospheric aerosol
load and thus to climate was investigated, results were
published in Science.
Both the Centre of Excellence of the Academy of Finland and
the Nordic Centre of Excellence studied natural emissions
of gases that are reactive in terms of atmospheric
chemistry, and the impact of these gases on aerosol
formation.
In
addition,
models
were
developed
for
describing gas exchange and aerosol formation between
forests and the atmosphere.
With TERI – the Energy and Resources Institute of India –
the Finnish Meteorological Institute continued the project
aiming to determine the properties of the pollution cloud
over South Asia, to assess the effects of pollutants on
people’s health and on the climate, and to investigate how
climate change affects vegetation zones and land use in
India.
A research station was established and officially
inaugurated.
In cooperation with NOAA, research is carried out on the
effects of climate change to the Arctic area.
Ozone and UV research
The research on ozone and UV radiation continued to have a
high profile and was composed of several international
projects getting financial support by EUMETSAT and the EU.
A central research item was the research of the effects of
the ozone depletion to the arctic climate. The ozone
soundings in Antarctica were continued as a co operation
between Finland and Argentina. The Finnish Antarctic
research was internationally evaluated in 2006, and the FMI
Antarctic ozone and UV research (co-operation with the
Meterorological Institute of Spain and several Argentinian
Institutes) was found to represent a success story. The
ozone and UV results of the FMI Antarctic research are
included in the WMO Antarctic Ozone Bulletins, too. The
ozone research group continued to co ordinate the EUMETSAT
Ozone SAF Project for making ozone data available after the
launch of the new satellite instruments in 2006. FMI also
participated in the new HydroSAF, where FMI is coordinating
the snowpart.
It was decided to locate the WMO Integrated Global
Atmospheric Chemistry Observations, IGACO – O3 Secretariat
in FMI. The task of the Secretariat is to facilitate the
coordination of the global UV and ozone measurements as
well as to facilitate the cooperation between the data
users.
Air Quality
The samples of the background air quality monitoring
programmes have been analysed for the year 2005. Also the
measurement data of the continuous monitors have been
handled. The results have been reported to the European
Union and to data bases of EMEP, AMAP, EU Integrated
Monitoring, and Helsinki Commission. Ozone results of
summer season of 2006 have been reported to the European
Union too.
A fine particle dispersion model has been developed. The
model helps to predict, for example, if and when when
considerable amounts of fine particles are transported to
Finland from central Europe.
New instruments and methods have been added to the Kumpula
urban air quality monitoring station in collaboration with
the University of Helsinki. Together with atmospheric
dispersion calculations and satellite image analyses the
new methods helped to identify the smoke from the forest
fires in eastern Europe in spring and summer of 2006.
The health effects of primary fine particles were assessed
in cooperation with the National Public Health Institute
and the Finnish Environment Institute. Fine particles were
estimated to cause 350 additional deaths annually in
Finland.
The analytical capability to measure mercury, other heavy
metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the air and
precipitation was developed. Monitoring of airborne mercury
was started in Virolahti, southeastern Finland, and at
Isosaari close to Helsinki. Airborne PAH compounds and
other heavy metals were analyzed periodically also from the
PM10 filter samples collected at Virolahti.
The internet portal of air quality measurements in Finland
was developed further and was taken into test operation. A
project studying the environmental effects of the nickel
and copper smelter at Nikel was wrapped up. The results
have been made available to the local environmental
authorities, business enterprises utilising nature (tourism
and natural products, e.g. berries and fish), and the local
public.
The second national intercomparison and audit campaign of
air quality measurements was performed. The participants
were mainly environmental authorities of municipalities. A
clear improvement of data quality was observed compared to
the first campaign.
2. PUBLICATIONS
Altogether 272 internationally
were published in 2006.
peer-reviewed
publications
3. MEMBERSHIP IN INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC BODIES
There were over 100 memberships in international scientific
bodies in meteorology.