Download Sodankylä-Pallas

CRYONET Site Questionnaire
Site specific metadata:
Name of site: Sodankylä-Pallas Cryosphere supersite
Latitude/Longitude/Altitude: 67°22’N 26°39’E, 180m (Sodankylä) and 67°58'N, 24°07'E, 565m (Pallas)
Landscape type: sub-arctic boreal forest
Onsite technical staff: Timo Sukuvaara (Head of technical services, Sodankylä), Ahti Ovaskainen (Pallas)
All-year round observations y/n: y
Year established: 1908 (Sodankylä) and 1994 (Pallas)
Link to website if available: fmiarc.fmi.fi ; litdb.fmi.fi ; fmigaw.fmi.fi
Station manager (Email): [email protected]
Organisation in charge of station: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Arctic Research Centre
Other information
Monitoring of the atmosphere:
Solid precipitation/Snowfall: solid precipitation intensity, precipitation type (METAR,SYNOP, present
weather code), particle size, precipitation amount
Trace gases: O3, NO2, SO2, CO2, CH4, N2O, SF6, H2, CO, Volatile organic compounds, HF
Aerosols: Aerosol number concentration, Neutral and charged aerosol size distribution, Aerosol
scattering and absorption coefficients, Hygroscopicity, Black carbon on snow, Radon-222 , Aerosol
Optical Depth, Aerosol backscatter vertical profile soundings
UV, stratospheric ozone: Spectral UV, Wideband UV, Total Ozone Column, Ozone profile soundings
Radiation (longwave, shortwave): Global, Diffused, Reflected, Direct, Radiation Balance,
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), Sunshine duration, Albedo at several wavelengths, Surface
reflectance and Reflected radiance
Others: Visibility; Ground observations of temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind speed and
direction; cloud height; Amount of clouds; mast measurements of temperature, humidity and winds up
to 48m, PTU soundings, Microwave observations(Brightness temperature)
Snow cover
Physical parameters: Snow depth, Snow temperature profile, Snow moisture profile, Snow water
equivalent (SWE), Snow pack layering, Snow grain size (profile), Snow specific surface area (profile),
Snow surface roughness, Snow hardness, Snow wetness, Distributed snow observations for a 4km–long
snow course, Snow density, Microwave snow observations(Brightness temperature and Backscattering),
snow albedo, hyper-spectral mast-borne reflectance
Chemical parameters: manual observations of the elemental and organic carbon concentration in snow
Others: Distributed observations (automatic and manual) covering boreal forests, wetland, and tundra
sites; snow depth and albedo from automatic sensors.
Other measurements (hydrological, ecological, oceanographic, etc)
Hydrology (measured parameters): evaporation, stratospheric water vapour vertical profile soundings,
and precipitation measurements.
Ecology (measured parameters):CH4 and CO2 flux measurements
Soil (measured parameters): Soil temperature profile, Soil moisture profile, Soil heat flux, Soil respiration
Lake ice (Lake Orajärvi): Total ice thickness, white ice layer thickness, ice layers, water surface from the
bottom of the ice, snow properties on top of the ice
Others: Distributed observations (automatic and manual) covering boreal forests, wetland, and tundra
sites (soil moisture (permittivity) and temperature profiles).
Linkages to satellite data (describe validation programs, applications of satellite data, etc.)
Sodankylä site hosts several reference systems and measurements for various satellite missions:
ESA SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity): Since 2009 L-band passive microwave instrument (Elbara
II) has been used to collect reference data from northern latitude boreal forest and wetland test areas in
order to (1) better understand the annual L-band brightness temperature changes, (2) further develop
and improve the soil freezing and thawing algorithms for SMOS and other passive L-band data and (3)
investigate the relation between wetland methane emissions and L-band measurements.
NASA SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive): Sodankylä-Pallas site is one of the SMAP calibration and
validation (cal/val) site. The site provides relevant in-situ measurements for soil moisture algorithm
development and validation at northern latitudes, to continue the soil freezing/thawing research using
SMAP global data and to continue the research of the greenhouse gases (CO2, methane) relations to the
L-band passive data.
ESA CoReH2O (The COld REgions Hydrology High-resolution Observatory): The Sodankylä area has acted
as a primary test area for several Phase A studies for the ESA CoReH2O mission, a candidate for the 7th
Earth Explorer mission.
The NoSREx campaign (Nordic Snow Radar Experiment), started in 2009, provides a reference timeseries of backscatter observations at X to Ku bands from snow covered terrain in the boreal forest region
for remote sensing missions. Also reference observations of Earth albedo have been recorded from a
34m tower extending from VIS to SWIR spectral range and covering both forested and open areas.
NASA EOS AURA: Direct Broadcast data are received and processed in near-real-time to products like
O3, SO2, clouds, UV index, UV daily dose and aerosols.
NASA EOS TERRA: MODIS Direct Broadcast data are received and processed in ner-real-time to L1 and L2
products and delivered for operational and scientific end users. Final products include ice maps, snow
maps, cloud masks, polar wind, cloud top pressures, algae, etc.
NASA EOS AQUA: MODIS Direct Broadcast data are received and processed in ner-real-time to L1 and L2
products and delivered for operational and scientific end users. Final products include ice maps, snow
maps, cloud masks, polar wind, cloud top pressures, algae, etc.
DMSP SSM/I and NASA/JAXA AMSR2: Reference radiometers (tower-based), processing of hemispeheric,
continental scale and regional snow products in ESA GlobSnow, EUMETSAT H-SAF and EC GMES
downstream service CryoLand.
NOAA/NASA VIIRS: Reference measurements by hyper-spectral tower-based spectroradiometer,
processing and delivery of hemispheric to regional snow products within ESA GlobSnow and EC GMES
downstream service CryoLand.
ESA ENVISAT/ AATSR: Reference measurements by hyper-spectral tower-based spectroradiometer,
processing and delivery of hemispherical scale snow products within ESA GlobSnow.
MOE/NIES/JAXA GOSAT (Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite ): As a part of the TCCON network
Sodankylä-Pallas satellite cal/val station provides reference data on column amounts of atmospheric
constituents like CO2, CH4 and other greenhouse gases. The cal/val dataset provided by the SodankyläPallas station include also AOD, flux tower and surface concentration measurements, a full suite of
supportive weather observations, balloon soundings, solar radiation measurements and surface albedo
data. Comparisons and model runs are performed as well.
Participation in international monitoring programmes such as GAW, GTN-G, GTN-P, ….
Networks and start of contribution:
WMO GAW (Global Atmospheric Watch) since 1994: Pallas-Sodankylä twin site provides upper-air
soundings, synoptic measurements, total ozone observations and ozone soundings as well as
tropospheric air composition and related boundary-layer meteorology measurements. Also air quality
observations of long range transmission of air pollutants in Europe are monitored and evaluated.
GRUAN (GCOS Reference Upper Air Network) since 2008: GRUAN is an international reference observing
network, designed to meet climate requirements and to fill a major void in the current global observing
system. Upper air observations within the GRUAN network will provide long-term high-quality climate
records, will be used to constrain and validate data from space based remote sensors, and will provide
accurate data for the study of atmospheric processes.
GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) since 2002 Pallas-Sodankylä participates in GEWEX
through the CEOP Project. The Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project
(CEOP) is a merger of the previous World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Global
Energy and Water-cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Hydrometeorology Panel (GHP) and the
'Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period' ('CEOP'), which was an element of WCRP initiated
by GEWEX. Among the key objectives of CEOP are: production of consistent research quality
data of the Earth's energy budget and water cycle and their variability on interannual to decadal
time scales, for use in climate system analysis and model development and evaluation; and
improve the predictive capability for key water and energy cycle variables. The objective of the
current project is to develop capabilities to derive atmospheric radiative fluxes for selected
CEOP regions as a step towards capabilities to test hydrological model transferability.
Addressed are issues related to differences in the satellite observing systems, issues related to
the uniqueness of the various climatic regions; model improvements and updated auxiliary
information.Pallas-Sodankylä participates since 2002.
NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change) since 1994: NDACC is
composed of more than 70 high-quality, remote-sensing research stations for observing and
understanding the physical and chemical state of the stratosphere and upper troposphere and for
assessing the impact of stratosphere changes on the underlying troposphere and on global climate The station contributes with its atmospheric O3, NO2 and aerosol observations.
EU-ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) since 2008: Sodakylä-Pallas site belongs to ICOS
measurement network, which is a European Research Infrastructure for quantifying and understanding
the greenhouse gas balance. It concentrates on long-term atmospheric and flux observations required to
understand the present state and predict future behavior of the global carbon cycle and greenhouse gas
emissions. Studying and monitoring greenhouse gas sinks and sources for typical boreal ecosystems, like
wetlands and coniferous forests, are important aspects when trying to evaluate global warming. For
example the methane release and related processes caused by permafrost melting are major issues in
this sense. Sodankylä-Pallas site represent the boreal and sub-arctic Eurasian environment with both
east-west and south-north transitions in eco-climatic features. Closely related to ICOS Sodankylä is also
participating in the ongoing EU funded InGOS project in which effects of annual evolution of wetlands,
melting and freezing, on methane fluxes play a key role.
TCCON (Total Carbon Column Observation Network) since 2009: As a part of a world wide network of
ground based Fourier Transform Spectrometers, recording direct solar spectra in near infrared region,
column averaged (dry air) abundances of atmospheric constituents are retrieved at the Sodankylä-Pallas
satellite data cal/val site. Reliable and accurate CAL-VAL data for remote sensing instruments of
greenhouse gases is provided.