Atmospheric processes investigation The method based on the correspondence of dV/dlogD values obtained by SMPS and corrected APS in the resulting overlapping channels, could not be applied here because of the lack of channels overlap, due to the limited upper range of the mod. 3034 SMPS (487 um) with respect to mod. 3936L10 used in other experiments. Greenhouse gas fluxes measurements The system to measure greenhouse gases consists of 3-D sonic anemometer, open-path CO2/H2O analyzer, open-path CH4 analyzer and closed-path CH4/CO2/H2O analyzer.
Set up of the eddy covariance system and the open path gas analyzer at 20 m on the CCT
Data are sampled at a rate of 10 Hz and stored in a data logger, backed up in a laptop computer through RS232 communication and transferred to KOPRI via internet. The data access is provided by ISAC – CNR. The eddy covariance system will be long-term and continuously operated and used to evaluate whether the permafrost near Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard at high Arctic region is a sink or source for the atmospheric carbon at the moment and how its role as sink/source changes with the Arctic warming.
Discussion and perspectives The preliminary data analysis presented in this paper has put into evidence the complexity of the site in terms of orography, meteorology, climatic conditions. The data record is too short to detect any climatic signal; comparison with longer records from other Arctic sites can be useful to indentify and characterize local peculiarities. Particular attention must be paid to the meteorology and to the interaction between the local scale dynamics and the large scale circulation processes. The extensive data set available up to now (and increasing in the future) will be used to test and possibly to improve parameterization schemes for the boundary layer in weather forecast and atmospheric chemical composition models.
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