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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Climate and air quality impacts due to mitigation of non-methane near-term climate forcers
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2020) Allen, Robert J.; Turnock, Steven; Nabat, Pierre; Neubauer, David; Lohmann, Ulrike; Olivié, Dirk; Oshima, Naga; Michou, Martine; Wu, Tongwen; Zhang, Jie; Takemura, Toshihiko; Schulz, Michael; Tsigaridis, Kostas; Bauer, Susanne E.; Emmons, Louisa; Horowitz, Larry; Naik, Vaishali; van Noije, Twan; Bergman, Tommi; Lamarque, Jean-Francois; Zanis, Prodromos; Tegen, Ina; Westervelt, Daniel M.; Le Sager, Philippe; Good, Peter; Shim, Sungbo; O’Connor, Fiona; Akritidis, Dimitris; Georgoulias, Aristeidis K.; Deushi, Makoto; Sentman, Lori T.; John, Jasmin G.; Fujimori, Shinichiro; Collins, William J.
    It is important to understand how future environmental policies will impact both climate change and air pollution. Although targeting near-term climate forcers (NTCFs), defined here as aerosols, tropospheric ozone, and precursor gases, should improve air quality, NTCF reductions will also impact climate. Prior assessments of the impact of NTCF mitigation on air quality and climate have been limited. This is related to the idealized nature of some prior studies, simplified treatment of aerosols and chemically reactive gases, as well as a lack of a sufficiently large number of models to quantify model diversity and robust responses. Here, we quantify the 2015-2055 climate and air quality effects of non-methane NTCFs using nine state-of-the-art chemistry-climate model simulations conducted for the Aerosol and Chemistry Model Intercomparison Project (AerChemMIP). Simulations are driven by two future scenarios featuring similar increases in greenhouse gases (GHGs) but with weak (SSP3-7.0) versus strong (SSP3-7.0-lowNTCF) levels of air quality control measures. As SSP3-7.0 lacks climate policy and has the highest levels of NTCFs, our results (e.g., surface warming) represent an upper bound. Unsurprisingly, we find significant improvements in air quality under NTCF mitigation (strong versus weak air quality controls). Surface fine particulate matter (PM2:5) and ozone (O3) decrease by 2:20:32 ugm3 and 4:60:88 ppb, respectively (changes quoted here are for the entire 2015-2055 time period; uncertainty represents the 95% confidence interval), over global land surfaces, with larger reductions in some regions including south and southeast Asia. Non-methane NTCF mitigation, however, leads to additional climate change due to the removal of aerosol which causes a net warming effect, including global mean surface temperature and precipitation increases of 0:250:12K and 0:030:012mmd1, respectively. Similarly, increases in extreme weather indices, including the hottest and wettest days, also occur. Regionally, the largest warming and wetting occurs over Asia, including central and north Asia (0:660:20K and 0:030:02mmd1), south Asia (0:470:16K and 0:170:09mmd1), and east Asia (0:460:20K and 0:150:06mmd1). Relatively large warming and wetting of the Arctic also occur at 0:590:36K and 0:040:02mmd1, respectively. Similar surface warming occurs in model simulations with aerosol-only mitigation, implying weak cooling due to ozone reductions. Our findings suggest that future policies that aggressively target non-methane NTCF reductions will improve air quality but will lead to additional surface warming, particularly in Asia and the Arctic. Policies that address other NTCFs including methane, as well as carbon dioxide emissions, must also be adopted to meet climate mitigation goals. © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
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    An optical particle size spectrometer for aircraft-borne measurements in IAGOS-CARIBIC
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2016) Hermann, Markus; Weigelt, Andreas; Assmann, Denise; Pfeifer, Sascha; Müller, Thomas; Conrath, Thomas; Voigtländer, Jens; Heintzenberg, Jost; Wiedensohler, Alfred; Martinsson, Bengt G.; Deshler, Terry; Brenninkmeijer, Carl A.M.; Zahn, Andreas
    The particle number size distribution is an important parameter to characterize the atmospheric aerosol and its influence on the Earth's climate. Here we describe a new optical particle size spectrometer (OPSS) for measurements of the accumulation mode particle number size distribution in the tropopause region on board a passenger aircraft (IAGOS-CARIBIC observatory: In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System – Civil Aircraft for Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container). A modified KS93 particle sensor from RION Co., Ltd., together with a new airflow system and a dedicated data acquisition system, is the key component of the CARIBIC OPSS. The instrument records individual particle pulse signal curves in the particle size range 130–1110 nm diameter (for a particle refractive index of 1.47-i0.006) together with a time stamp and thus allows the post-flight choice of the time resolution and the size distribution bin width. The CARIBIC OPSS has a 50 % particle detection diameter of 152 nm and a maximum asymptotic counting efficiency of 98 %. The instrument's measurement performance shows no pressure dependency and no particle coincidence for free tropospheric conditions. The size response function of the CARIBIC OPSS was obtained by a polystyrene latex calibration in combination with model calculations. Particle number size distributions measured with the new OPSS in the lowermost stratosphere agreed within a factor of 2 in concentration with balloon-borne measurements over western North America. Since June 2010 the CARIBIC OPSS is deployed once per month in the IAGOS-CARIBIC observatory.
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    Formation and composition of the UTLS aerosol
    (London : Springer Nature, 2019) Martinsson, Bengt G.; Friberg, Johan; Sandvik, Oscar S.; Hermann, Markus; van Velthoven, Peter F. J.; Zahn, Andreas
    Stratospheric aerosol has long been seen as a pure mixture of sulfuric acid and water. Recent measurements, however, found a considerable carbonaceous fraction extending at least 8 km into the stratosphere. This fraction affects the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and the radiative properties, and hence the radiative forcing and climate impact of the stratospheric aerosol. Here we present an investigation based on a decade (2005–2014) of airborne aerosol sampling at 9–12 km altitude in the tropics and the northern hemisphere (NH) aboard the IAGOS-CARIBIC passenger aircraft. We find that the chemical composition of tropospheric aerosol in the tropics differs markedly from that at NH midlatitudes, and, that the carbonaceous stratospheric aerosol is oxygen-poor compared to the tropospheric aerosol. Furthermore, the carbonaceous and sulfurous components of the aerosol in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS) show strong increases in concentration connected with springtime subsidence from overlying stratospheric layers. The LMS concentrations significantly exceed those in the troposphere, thus clearly indicating a stratospheric production of not only the well-established sulfurous aerosol, but also a considerable but less understood carbonaceous component. © 2019, The Author(s).
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    Multidecadal trend analysis of in situ aerosol radiative properties around the world
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2020) Collaud Coen, Martine; Andrews, Elisabeth; Alastuey, Andrés; Petkov Arsov, Todor; Backman, John; Brem, Benjamin T.; Bukowiecki, Nicolas; Couret, Cédric; Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos; Flentje, Harald; Fiebig, Markus; Gysel-Beer, Martin; Hand, Jenny L.; Hoffer, András; Hooda, Rakesh; Hueglin, Christoph; Joubert, Warren; Keywood, Melita; Eun Kim, Jeong; Kim, Sang-Woo; Labuschagne, Casper; Lin, Neng-Huei; Lin, Yong; Lund Myhre, Cathrine; Luoma, Krista; Lyamani, Hassan; Marinoni, Angela; Mayol-Bracero, Olga L.; Mihalopoulos, Nikos; Pandolfi, Marco; Prats, Natalia; Prenni, Anthony J.; Putaud, Jean-Philippe; Ries, Ludwig; Reisen, Fabienne; Sellegri, Karine; Sharma, Sangeeta; Sheridan, Patrick; Sherman, James Patrick; Sun, Junying; Titos, Gloria; Torres, Elvis; Tuch, Thomas; Weller, Rolf; Wiedensohler, Alfred; Zieger, Paul; Laj, Paolo
    In order to assess the evolution of aerosol parameters affecting climate change, a long-term trend analysis of aerosol optical properties was performed on time series from 52 stations situated across five continents. The time series of measured scattering, backscattering and absorption coefficients as well as the derived single scattering albedo, backscattering fraction, scattering and absorption Ångström exponents covered at least 10 years and up to 40 years for some stations. The non-parametric seasonal Mann-Kendall (MK) statistical test associated with several pre-whitening methods and with Sen's slope was used as the main trend analysis method. Comparisons with general least mean square associated with autoregressive bootstrap (GLS/ARB) and with standard least mean square analysis (LMS) enabled confirmation of the detected MK statistically significant trends and the assessment of advantages and limitations of each method. Currently, scattering and backscattering coefficient trends are mostly decreasing in Europe and North America and are not statistically significant in Asia, while polar stations exhibit a mix of increasing and decreasing trends. A few increasing trends are also found at some stations in North America and Australia. Absorption coefficient time series also exhibit primarily decreasing trends. For single scattering albedo, 52 % of the sites exhibit statistically significant positive trends, mostly in Asia, eastern/northern Europe and the Arctic, 22 % of sites exhibit statistically significant negative trends, mostly in central Europe and central North America, while the remaining 26 % of sites have trends which are not statistically significant. In addition to evaluating trends for the overall time series, the evolution of the trends in sequential 10-year segments was also analyzed. For scattering and backscattering, statistically significant increasing 10-year trends are primarily found for earlier periods (10-year trends ending in 2010-2015) for polar stations and Mauna Loa. For most of the stations, the present-day statistically significant decreasing 10-year trends of the single scattering albedo were preceded by not statistically significant and statistically significant increasing 10-year trends. The effect of air pollution abatement policies in continental North America is very obvious in the 10-year trends of the scattering coefficient - there is a shift to statistically significant negative trends in 2009-2012 for all stations in the eastern and central USA. This long-term trend analysis of aerosol radiative properties with a broad spatial coverage provides insight into potential aerosol effects on climate changes. © 2020 Royal Society of Chemistry. All rights reserved.
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    Recommendations for reporting "black carbon" measurements
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2013) Petzold, A.; Ogren, J.A.; Fiebig, M.; Laj, P.; Li, S.-M.; Baltensperger, U.; Holzer-Popp, T.; Kinne, S.; Pappalardo, G.; Sugimoto, N.; Wehrli, C.; Wiedensohler, A.; Zhang, X.-Y.
    Although black carbon (BC) is one of the key atmospheric particulate components driving climate change and air quality, there is no agreement on the terminology that considers all aspects of specific properties, definitions, measurement methods, and related uncertainties. As a result, there is much ambiguity in the scientific literature of measurements and numerical models that refer to BC with different names and based on different properties of the particles, with no clear definition of the terms. The authors present here a recommended terminology to clarify the terms used for BC in atmospheric research, with the goal of establishing unambiguous links between terms, targeted material properties and associated measurement techniques.
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    A global analysis of climate-relevant aerosol properties retrieved from the network of Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) near-surface observatories
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2020) Laj, Paolo; Bigi, Alessandro; Rose, Clémence; Andrews, Elisabeth; Lund Myhre, Cathrine; Collaud Coen, Martine; Lin, Yong; Wiedensohler, Alfred; Schulz, Michael; Ogren, John A.; Fiebig, Markus; Prenni, Anthony; Reisen, Fabienne; Romano, Salvatore; Sellegri, Karine; Sharma, Sangeeta; Schauer, Gerhard; Sheridan, Patrick; Sherman, James Patrick; Schütze, Maik; Schwerin, Andreas; Tuch, Thomas; Sohmer, Ralf; Sorribas, Mar; Steinbacher, Martin; Sun, Junying; Titos, Gloria; Toczko, Barbara; Tulet, Pierre; Tunved, Peter; Vakkari, Ville; Velarde, Fernando; Velasquez, Patricio; Villani, Paolo; Vratolis, Sterios; Wang, Sheng-Hsiang; Weinhold, Kay; Gliß, Jonas; Weller, Rolf; Yela, Margarita; Yus-Diez, Jesus; Zdimal, Vladimir; Zieger, Paul; Zikova, Nadezda; Mortier, Augustin; Pandolfi, Marco; Petäja, Tuukka; Kim, Sang-Woo; Aas, Wenche; Putaud, Jean-Philippe; Mayol-Bracero, Olga; Keywood, Melita; Labrador, Lorenzo; Aalto, Pasi; Ahlberg, Erik; Alados Arboledas, Lucas; Alastuey, Andrés; Andrade, Marcos; Artíñano, Begoña; Ausmeel, Stina; Arsov, Todor; Asmi, Eija; Backman, John; Baltensperger, Urs; Bastian, Susanne; Bath, Olaf; Beukes, Johan Paul; Brem, Benjamin T.; Bukowiecki, Nicolas; Conil, Sébastien; Couret, Cedric; Day, Derek; Dayantolis, Wan; Degorska, Anna; Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos; Fetfatzis, Prodromos; Favez, Olivier; Flentje, Harald; Gini, Maria I.; Gregorič, Asta; Gysel-Beer, Martin; Hallar, A. Gannet; Hand, Jenny; Hoffer, Andras; Hueglin, Christoph; Hooda, Rakesh K.; Hyvärinen, Antti; Kalapov, Ivo; Kalivitis, Nikos; Kasper-Giebl, Anne; Kim, Jeong Eun; Kouvarakis, Giorgos; Kranjc, Irena; Krejci, Radovan; Kulmala, Markku; Labuschagne, Casper; Lee, Hae-Jung; Lihavainen, Heikki; Lin, Neng-Huei; Löschau, Gunter; Luoma, Krista; Marinoni, Angela; Martins Dos Santos, Sebastiao; Meinhardt, Frank; Merkel, Maik; Metzger, Jean-Marc; Mihalopoulos, Nikolaos; Nguyen, Nhat Anh; Ondracek, Jakub; Pérez, Noemi; Perrone, Maria Rita; Petit, Jean-Eudes; Picard, David; Pichon, Jean-Marc; Pont, Veronique; Prats, Natalia
    Aerosol particles are essential constituents of the Earth's atmosphere, impacting the earth radiation balance directly by scattering and absorbing solar radiation, and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. In contrast to most greenhouse gases, aerosol particles have short atmospheric residence times, resulting in a highly heterogeneous distribution in space and time. There is a clear need to document this variability at regional scale through observations involving, in particular, the in situ near-surface segment of the atmospheric observation system. This paper will provide the widest effort so far to document variability of climate-relevant in situ aerosol properties (namely wavelength dependent particle light scattering and absorption coefficients, particle number concentration and particle number size distribution) from all sites connected to the Global Atmosphere Watch network. High-quality data from almost 90 stations worldwide have been collected and controlled for quality and are reported for a reference year in 2017, providing a very extended and robust view of the variability of these variables worldwide. The range of variability observed worldwide for light scattering and absorption coefficients, single-scattering albedo, and particle number concentration are presented together with preliminary information on their long-term trends and comparison with model simulation for the different stations. The scope of the present paper is also to provide the necessary suite of information, including data provision procedures, quality control and analysis, data policy, and usage of the ground-based aerosol measurement network. It delivers to users of the World Data Centre on Aerosol, the required confidence in data products in the form of a fully characterized value chain, including uncertainty estimation and requirements for contributing to the global climate monitoring system.
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    The "dual-spot" Aethalometer: An improved measurement of aerosol black carbon with real-time loading compensation
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2015) Drinovec, L.; Močnik, G.; Zotter, P.; Prévôt, A.S.H.; Ruckstuhl, C.; Coz, E.; Rupakheti, M.; Sciare, J.; Müller, T.; Wiedensohler, A.; Hansen, A.D.A.
    Aerosol black carbon is a unique primary tracer for combustion emissions. It affects the optical properties of the atmosphere and is recognized as the second most important anthropogenic forcing agent for climate change. It is the primary tracer for adverse health effects caused by air pollution. For the accurate determination of mass equivalent black carbon concentrations in the air and for source apportionment of the concentrations, optical measurements by filter-based absorption photometers must take into account the "filter loading effect". We present a new real-time loading effect compensation algorithm based on a two parallel spot measurement of optical absorption. This algorithm has been incorporated into the new Aethalometer model AE33. Intercomparison studies show excellent reproducibility of the AE33 measurements and very good agreement with post-processed data obtained using earlier Aethalometer models and other filter-based absorption photometers. The real-time loading effect compensation algorithm provides the high-quality data necessary for real-time source apportionment and for determination of the temporal variation of the compensation parameter k.
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    The Arctic Cloud Puzzle: Using ACLOUD/PASCAL Multiplatform Observations to Unravel the Role of Clouds and Aerosol Particles in Arctic Amplification
    (Boston, Mass. : ASM, 2019) Wendisch, Manfred; Macke, Andreas; Ehrlich, André; Lüpkes, Christof; Mech, Mario; Chechin, Dmitry; Dethloff, Klaus; Velasco, Carola Barrientos; Bozem, Heiko; Brückner, Marlen; Clemen, Hans-Christian; Crewell, Susanne; Donth, Tobias; Dupuy, Regis; Ebell, Kerstin; Egerer, Ulrike; Engelmann, Ronny; Engler, Christa; Eppers, Oliver; Gehrmann, Martin; Gong, Xianda; Gottschalk, Matthias; Gourbeyre, Christophe; Griesche, Hannes; Hartmann, Jörg; Hartmann, Markus; Heinold, Bernd; Herber, Andreas; Herrmann, Hartmut; Heygster, Georg; Hoor, Peter; Jafariserajehlou, Soheila; Jäkel, Evelyn; Järvinen, Emma; Jourdan, Olivier; Kästner, Udo; Kecorius, Simonas; Knudsen, Erlend M.; Köllner, Franziska; Kretzschmar, Jan; Lelli, Luca; Leroy, Delphine; Maturilli, Marion; Mei, Linlu; Mertes, Stephan; Mioche, Guillaume; Neuber, Roland; Nicolaus, Marcel; Nomokonova, Tatiana; Notholt, Justus; Palm, Mathias; van Pinxteren, Manuela; Quaas, Johannes; Richter, Philipp; Ruiz-Donoso, Elena; Schäfer, Michael; Schmieder, Katja; Schnaiter, Martin; Schneider, Johannes; Schwarzenböck, Alfons; Seifert, Patric; Shupe, Matthew D.; Siebert, Holger; Spreen, Gunnar; Stapf, Johannes; Stratmann, Frank; Vogl, Teresa; Welti, André; Wex, Heike; Wiedensohler, Alfred; Zanatta, Marco; Zeppenfeld, Sebastian
    Clouds play an important role in Arctic amplification. This term represents the recently observed enhanced warming of the Arctic relative to the global increase of near-surface air temperature. However, there are still important knowledge gaps regarding the interplay between Arctic clouds and aerosol particles, and surface properties, as well as turbulent and radiative fluxes that inhibit accurate model simulations of clouds in the Arctic climate system. In an attempt to resolve this so-called Arctic cloud puzzle, two comprehensive and closely coordinated field studies were conducted: the Arctic Cloud Observations Using Airborne Measurements during Polar Day (ACLOUD) aircraft campaign and the Physical Feedbacks of Arctic Boundary Layer, Sea Ice, Cloud and Aerosol (PASCAL) ice breaker expedition. Both observational studies were performed in the framework of the German Arctic Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and Surface Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC) project. They took place in the vicinity of Svalbard, Norway, in May and June 2017. ACLOUD and PASCAL explored four pieces of the Arctic cloud puzzle: cloud properties, aerosol impact on clouds, atmospheric radiation, and turbulent dynamical processes. The two instrumented Polar 5 and Polar 6 aircraft; the icebreaker Research Vessel (R/V) Polarstern; an ice floe camp including an instrumented tethered balloon; and the permanent ground-based measurement station at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, were employed to observe Arctic low- and mid-level mixed-phase clouds and to investigate related atmospheric and surface processes. The Polar 5 aircraft served as a remote sensing observatory examining the clouds from above by downward-looking sensors; the Polar 6 aircraft operated as a flying in situ measurement laboratory sampling inside and below the clouds. Most of the collocated Polar 5/6 flights were conducted either above the R/V Polarstern or over the Ny-Ålesund station, both of which monitored the clouds from below using similar but upward-looking remote sensing techniques as the Polar 5 aircraft. Several of the flights were carried out underneath collocated satellite tracks. The paper motivates the scientific objectives of the ACLOUD/PASCAL observations and describes the measured quantities, retrieved parameters, and the applied complementary instrumentation. Furthermore, it discusses selected measurement results and poses critical research questions to be answered in future papers analyzing the data from the two field campaigns.
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    Overview: Integrative and Comprehensive Understanding on Polar Environments (iCUPE) – concept and initial results
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2020) Petäjä, Tuukka; Duplissy, Ella-Maria; Tabakova, Ksenia; Schmale, Julia; Altstädter, Barbara; Ancellet, Gerard; Arshinov, Mikhail; Balin, Yurii; Baltensperger, Urs; Bange, Jens; Beamish, Alison; Belan, Boris; Berchet, Antoine; Bossi, Rossana; Cairns, Warren R.L.; Ebinghaus, Ralf; El Haddad, Imad; Ferreira-Araujo, Beatriz; Franck, Anna; Huang, Lin; Hyvärinen, Antti; Humbert, Angelika; Kalogridis, Athina-Cerise; Konstantinov, Pavel; Lampert, Astrid; MacLeod, Matthew; Magand, Olivier; Mahura, Alexander; Marelle, Louis; Masloboev, Vladimir; Moisseev, Dmitri; Moschos, Vaios; Neckel, Niklas; Onishi, Tatsuo; Osterwalder, Stefan; Ovaska, Aino; Paasonen, Pauli; Panchenko, Mikhail; Pankratov, Fidel; Pernov, Jakob B.; Platis, Andreas; Popovicheva, Olga; Raut, Jean-Christophe; Riandet, Aurélie; Sachs, Torsten; Salvatori, Rosamaria; Salzano, Roberto; Schröder, Ludwig; Schön, Martin; Shevchenko, Vladimir; Skov, Henrik; Sonke, Jeroen E.; Spolaor, Andrea; Stathopoulos, Vasileios K.; Strahlendorff, Mikko; Thomas, Jennie L.; Vitale, Vito; Vratolis, Sterios; Barbante, Carlo; Chabrillat, Sabine; Dommergue, Aurélien; Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos; Heilimo, Jyri; Law, Kathy S.; Massling, Andreas; Noe, Steffen M.; Paris, Jean-Daniel; Prévôt, André S.H.; Riipinen, Ilona; Wehner, Birgit; Xie, Zhiyong; Lappalainen, Hanna K.
    The role of polar regions is increasing in terms of megatrends such as globalization, new transport routes, demography, and the use of natural resources with consequent effects on regional and transported pollutant concentrations. We set up the ERA-PLANET Strand 4 project “iCUPE – integrative and Comprehensive Understanding on Polar Environments” to provide novel insights and observational data on global grand challenges with an Arctic focus. We utilize an integrated approach combining in situ observations, satellite remote sensing Earth observations (EOs), and multi-scale modeling to synthesize data from comprehensive long-term measurements, intensive campaigns, and satellites to deliver data products, metrics, and indicators to stakeholders concerning the environmental status, availability, and extraction of natural resources in the polar areas. The iCUPE work consists of thematic state-of-the-art research and the provision of novel data in atmospheric pollution, local sources and transboundary transport, the characterization of arctic surfaces and their changes, an assessment of the concentrations and impacts of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants and their cycling, the quantification of emissions from natural resource extraction, and the validation and optimization of satellite Earth observation (EO) data streams. In this paper we introduce the iCUPE project and summarize initial results arising out of the integration of comprehensive in situ observations, satellite remote sensing, and multi-scale modeling in the Arctic context.