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Atmospheric observations at the Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard

  • Environmental Changes in Arctic
  • Published:
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Abstract

The Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower (CCT) is one of the important scientific platforms operating in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. The CCT is equipped with a consistent set of meteorological sensors installed at different heights to provide continuous measurements of the atmospheric parameters that affect the climate and its variability. In this paper, some features of the main meteorological parameters observed during the 6 years of measurements since November 2009 are presented in order to describe the thermodynamic characteristic of the lower layers of the atmosphere and the peculiarities of CCT. Monthly and seasonal behavior of temperature, humidity and wind as well as radiation budget and albedo variability are also shown. Such preliminary statistical description aims to provide an overview of the phenomenology occurring in the Kongsfjord area, useful to proceed with further analysis of the arctic climatic system. Even if the time series are not long enough to consider the parameters variability on a climatological time scale, useful assumptions can be made for detailed analysis concerning turbulence studies, data intercomparison at different time and space scales, validation of theory and numerical model results. CCT dataset is stored in a dedicated built-in digital infrastructure that allows other users, in the frame of international cooperations, to visualize, access and download the data and contribute to strengthen the collaboration within the scientific community operating in Svalbard.

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Acknowledgments

This work was realized in the frame of the Climate Change Tower – Integrated Project of Dipartimento Scienze del Sistema Terra e Tecnologie per l’Ambiente-National Research Council of Italy, that supported the construction of the Amundsen Nobile CCT. The project was partially financed as National Interest Project by the Italian Minister of Education, University and Research (PRIN 2007 and PRIN 2009) and by Minister of Foreign Affairs (Bilateral project Italy-Korea). The authors wish to thank Dr. Taejin Choi of KOPRI for the collaborative research active in Ny-Ålesund at CCT. Thanks are also due to personnel managing the facilities at the Dirigibile Italia Arctic Station. Authors acknowledge also Norwegian Polar Institute, Alfred-Wegener Institute and Kings Bay AS, for the help in using the facilities in Ny-Ålesund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council, Via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy

    Mauro Mazzola, Christian Lanconelli & Vito Vitale

  2. Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Angelo Pietro Viola

  3. Institute of Environment and Sustainability (IES), Land Resource Management Unit (LRM) H05, European Commission, Joint Research Center, 21020, Ispra, Italy

    Christian Lanconelli

Authors
  1. Mauro Mazzola
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  2. Angelo Pietro Viola
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  3. Christian Lanconelli
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  4. Vito Vitale
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mauro Mazzola.

Additional information

This peer-reviewed article is a result of the multi and interdisciplinary research activities based at the Arctic Station "Dirigibile Italia", coordinated by the "Dipartimento Scienze del Sistema Terra e Tecnologie per l'Ambiente" of the National Research Council of Italy.

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Mazzola, M., Viola, A.P., Lanconelli, C. et al. Atmospheric observations at the Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 27 (Suppl 1), 7–18 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-016-0540-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-016-0540-8

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