Record Air Pollution above the Arctic

Large amounts of aerosols from Eastern Europe flew into the Arctic atmosphere and caused an "Arctic Haze" like never seen before. This has happened due to a particularly large-scale weather situation.

Scientists measured at the beginning of May values of pollution that are usually seen only during rush hour in cities. The town of Ny-Ålesund at the western coast of Svalbard usually has a clear sky but on May 2nd it was covered by orange brown dust. The dust later disappeared.

"The present air pollution is more than 2.5 fold higher than values measured in spring 2000. As a consequence, we expect significantly increase warming", explains Dr. Andreas Herber of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven.

Aerosols are small particles in the atmosphere, liquid or solid, that serve as condensation nuclei during cloud formation. Scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute have been measuring the aerosol content of the atmosphere above Svalbard since 1991.

"It is still difficult to estimate, whether this year's data constitute the beginning of a common trend", says Herber. "We need continued measurements in the course of subsequent years".

The aerosols were transported from Eastern Europe into the Arctic atmosphere by the specific weather conditions this year. It is hard to tell whether this situation is a symptom of a permanent trend or just an accident.

The Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) also found extremely high concentrations of ozone, the highest values measured since the foundation of the research base in 1989.

Photo credit: Jürgen Graeser, Alfred-Wegener-Institut
Map: Google Earth