Alexander Baklanov

Deposition of sulfate and heavy metals on the Kola Peninsula

Snowpack samples were collected at 20 sites on the Kola Peninsula, Russia, in April 1991. Samples were collected both in remote regions and in areas impacted by nearby emission sources, including the Severonikel CuNi smelter in the city of Monchegorsk. In the background regions, total winter deposition for non-seasalt SO42−, NO3−, Cu, and Ni were 120–300, 70–300, 6–14, and 0.3-1.5 mg/m2, respectively, and the snowpack pH ranged from 4.4 to 4.9. In the region near the Severonikel CuNi smelter, snowpack SO42−, Cu, and Ni concentrations were enhanced considerably. Total winter deposition in this area was in the range of 390–500, 190–280, and 14–32 mg/m2 for non-seasalt SO42−, Cu, and Ni, respectively, with little influence on snowpack pH. In the vicinity of the Severonikel complex, the data indicate relatively inefficient removal of sulfur dioxide by snow and more efficient removal of particles containing metal. The 6-month sulfate deposition within 20 km of the smelter accounts for much less than 1% of the smelter SO2 emissions over the same period. In contrast, approximately 24% of the smelter copper emissions are deposited within 20 km of the source, which suggests an important role for sedimentation of relatively large particles containing metal in the vicinity of the smelter. Pb, As, and Cd deposition to the snowpack is much less, suggesting that emissions of these more toxic elements are largely absent or occur in smaller particles (Kelley et al., this volume).

The simulation of radioactive pollution of the environment after an hypothetical accident at the Kola Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract This article presents a short description of the problems of modelling radionuclides distributed from the Kola Nuclear Power Plant under the ‘Automatic Radiation Control System’ (ARCS). This article is divided into several parts: a short description of ARCS; the physical-geographical peculiarities and meteorological characteristics of a 30-km zone around the atomic station; the simulation of wind velocity fields; a scenario of an hypothetical accident; a description of a 3-dimensional model modified for the conditions within the 30-km zone around the station; results and conclusions.

Pan Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) - A research initiative meeting the grand challenges of the changing environment of the Northern Pan-Eurasian Arctic-Boreal areas

The Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) is a new multidisciplinary, global change research initiative focusing on understanding biosphere-ocean-cryosphere-climate interactions and feedbacks in Arctic and boreal regions in the Northern Eurasian geographical domain. PEEX operates in an integrative way and it aims at solving the major scientific and society relevant questions in many scales using tools from natural and social sciences and economics. The research agenda identifies the most urgent large scale research questions and topics of the land-atmosphere-aquatic-anthropogenic systems and interactions and feedbacks between the systems for the next decades. Furthermore PEEX actively develops and designs a coordinated and coherent ground station network from Europe via Siberia to China and the coastal line of the Arctic Ocean together with a PEEX-modeling platform. PEEX launches a program for educating the next generation of multidisciplinary researcher and technical experts. This expedites the utilization of the new scientific knowledge for producing a more reliable climate change scenarios in regional and global scales, and enables mitigation and adaptation planning of the Northern societies. PEEX gathers together leading European, Russian and Chinese research groups. With a bottom-up approach, over 40 institutes and universities have contributed the PEEX Science Plan from 18 countries. In 2014 the PEEX community prepared Science Plan and initiated conceptual design of the PEEX land-atmosphere observation network and modeling platform. Here we present the PEEX approach as a whole with the specific attention to research agenda and preliminary design of the PEEX research infrastructure.

Cell model of in-cloud scavenging of highly soluble gases

We investigate mass transfer during absorption of highly soluble gases such as HNO3 ,H 2O2 by stagnant cloud droplets in the presence of inert admixtures. Thermophysical properties of the gases and liquids are assumed to be constant. Diffusion interactions between droplets, caused by the overlap of depleted of soluble gas regions around the neighboring droplets, are taken into account in the approximation of a cellular model of a gas–droplet suspension whereby a suspension is viewed as a periodic structure consisting of the identical spherical cells with periodic boundary conditions at the cell boundary. Using this model we determined temporal and spatial dependencies of the concentration of the soluble trace gas in a gaseous phase and in a droplet and calculated the dependence of the scavenging coefficient on time. We found that scavenging coefficient for gas absorption by cloud droplets remains constant and sharply decreases only at the final stage of absorption. In the calculations we employed a Monte Carlo method and assumed gamma size distribution of cloud droplets. It is shown that despite of the comparable values of Henry’s law constants for the hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O2) and the nitric acid (HNO3), the nitric acid is scavenged more effectively by cloud droplets than the hydrogen peroxide due to a major affect of the dissociation reaction on HNO3 scavenging. It is demonstrated that scavenging of highly soluble gases by cloud droplets leads to strong decrease of soluble trace gas concentration in the interstitial air. We obtained also analytical expressions for the ‘‘equilibrium values’’ of concentration of the soluble trace gas in a gaseous phase and for concentration of the dissolved gas in a liquid phase for the case of hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid absorption by cloud droplets.

Simulation of the atmospheric transport and deposition on a local/meso- and regional scale after hypothetical accidents at the Kola nuclear power plant

Abstract An accident at the Kola nuclear power plant could cause a large release of radioactivity into the atmosphere. To illustrate possible effects on the environment, potential atmospheric transport and deposition are calculated for two different scales—the local/meso- and the regional, using two different models. A 3-dimensional meso-scale model, developed at the Kola Science Centre, and suitable for distances out to a few hundred kilometres, has been used for the local/meso-scale, and a model system based on the MATHEW/ADPIC code, for the regional scale. Some consequences for the population have been estimated by using the MACCS model. Calculated aerial radionuclide activity concentrations, ground contamination and consequences for the population of the Euro-Arctic Barents region are discussed for two scenarios. The results for the local scale show a considerable influence on the radionuclide ground contamination pattern from the presence of precipitation. The significance of wet deposition is confirmed by the results for the regional scale which also emphasise the importance of having access to high quality weather predictions in emergency response organisations. The importance of the specific Arctic nutrition pathways, not included in this study, is discussed. It is important to make further studies in order to investigate the significance of these pathways.

A Multi-model Case Study on Aerosol Feedbacks in Online Coupled Chemistry-Meteorology Models Within the COST Action ES1004 EuMetChem

The importance of different processes and feedbacks in online coupled chemistry-meteorology models for air quality simulations and weather prediction was investigated in COST Action ES1004 (EuMetChem). Case studies for Europe were performed with different models as a coordinated exercise for two episodes in 2010 in order to analyse the aerosol direct and indirect radiative effect and the response of different models to aerosol-radiation interactions.

SEASONAL IMPACT ANALYSIS ON POPULATION DUE TO CONTINUOUS SULPHUR EMISSIONS FROM SEVERONIKEL SMELTERS OF THE KOLA PENINSULA

This study is devoted to investigation of total deposition and loading patterns for population of the North-West Russia and Scandinavian countries due to continuous emissions (following “mild emission scenario”) of sulphates from the Cu-Ni smelters (Severonikel enterprise, Murmansk region, Russia). The Lagrangian long-range dispersion model (Danish Emergency Response Model for Atmosphere) was run in a long-term mode to simulate atmospheric transport, dispersion and deposition over the Northern Hemispheric’s domain north of 10°N, and results were integrated and analyzed in the GIS environment. Analysis was performed on annual and seasonal scales, including depositions, impact on urban areas and calculating individual and collective loadings on population in selected regions ofRussiaand Scandinavian countries. It was found that wet deposition dominates, and it is higher in winter. The North-West Russia is more influenced by the Severonikel emissions compared with the Scandinavian countries. Among urban areas, the Russian cities ofMurmansk(due to its proximity to the source) andArkhangelsk(due to dominating atmospheric flows) are under the highest impact. The yearly individual loadings on population are the largest (up to 120 kg/person) for theMurmanskregion; lower (15 kg/person) for territories of the northernNorway, and the smallest (less than 5 kg/person) for the easternFinland,KareliaRepublic, andArkhangelskregion. These loadings have distinct seasonal variability with a largest contribution during winter-spring for Russia, spring – for Norway, and autumn – for Finland and Sweden; and the lowest during summer (i.e. less than 10 and 1 kg/person for the Russia and Scandinavian countries, respectively). The yearly collective loadings for population living on the impacted territories inRussia,Finland,Norway, and Swedenare 2628, 140.4, 13, and 10.7 tonnes, respectively.

PAN-EURASIAN EXPERIMENT (PEEX) PROGRAM: AN OVERVIEW OF THE FIRST 5 YEARS IN OPERATION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

The Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) program was initiated as a bottom-up approach by the researchers coming fromFinlandandRussiain October 2012. The PEEX China kick off meeting was held in November 2013. During its five years in operation, the program has established a governance structure and delivered a science plan for the Northern Eurasian region. PEEX has also introduced a concept design for a modelling platform and ground-based in situ observation systems for detecting land-atmosphere and ocean-atmosphere interactions. Today, PEEX has an extensive researcher’s network representing research communities coming from the Nordic countries,RussiaandChina. PEEX is currently carrying out its research activities on a project basis, but is looking for more coordinated funding bases, especially inRussiaand inChina. The near-future challenge in implementing the PEEX research agenda is to achieve a successful integration and identification of the methodological approaches of the socio-economic research to environmental sciences. Here we give insight into these issues and provide an overview on the main tasks for the upcoming years.

Connecting ground-based in-situ observations, ground-based remote sensing and satellite data within the Pan Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) program

Human activities put an increasing stress on the Earth’ environment and push the safe and sustainable boundaries of the vulnerable eco-system. It is of utmost importance to gauge with a comprehensive research program the current status of the environment, particularly in the most vulnerable locations. The Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) is a new multidisciplinary research program aiming at resolving the major uncertainties in the Earth system science and global sustainability questions in the Arctic and boreal Pan-Eurasian regions. The PEEX program aims to (i) understand the Earth system and the influence of environmental and societal changes in both pristine and industrialized Pan-Eurasian environments, (ii) establish and sustain long-term, continuous and comprehensive ground-based airborne and seaborne research infrastructures, and utilize satellite data and multi-scale model frameworks filling the gaps of the insitu observational network, (iii) contribute to regional climate scenarios in the northern Pan-Eurasia and determine the relevant factors and interactions influencing human and societal wellbeing (iv) promote the dissemination of PEEX scientific results and strategies in scientific and stake-holder communities and policy making, (v) educate the next generation of multidisciplinary global change experts and scientists, and (vi) increase the public awareness of climate change impacts in the Pan- Eurasian region. In this contribution, we underline general features of the satellite observations relevant to the PEEX research program and how satellite observations connect to the ground-based observations.

Status and Evaluation of Enviro-HIRLAM: Differences Between Online and Offline Models

Online coupled model systems in which a meteorological model contains emissions, transport, dispersion, deposition, chemistry and aerosol physics of pollutants have recently received much attention, mainly due to the prospects of including feedbacks between pollutants and meteorological fields and quantifying indirect effects. There are, however, several other important differences between online and offline coupled models and in this context it is important to investigate when online models are useful. This study presents the current status of Enviro-HIRLAM, an online coupled model developed at the Danish Meteorological Institute, and investigates the importance of increased availability of meteorological information to transport and dispersion. Enviro-HIRLAM is shown to perform satisfactory during tests of transport, dispersion and deposition, using data from the first European Tracer Experiment (ETEX-1) and measurements of deposited Cesium-137 made after the Chernobyl accident. Offline and online simulations of the ETEX-1 release are compared and it is shown that the offline coupling interval plays an important role in constraining the influence of meso-scale disturbances on (long range) plume development.