Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX): towards a holistic understanding of the feedbacks and interactions in the land–atmosphere–ocean–society continuum in the northern Eurasian region

Abstract. The northern Eurasian regions and Arctic Ocean will very likely undergo substantial changes during the next decades. The Arctic–boreal natural environments play a crucial role in the global climate via albedo change, carbon sources and sinks as well as atmospheric aerosol production from biogenic volatile organic compounds. Furthermore, it is expected that global trade activities, demographic movement, and use of natural resources will be increasing in the Arctic regions. There is a need for a novel research approach, which not only identifies and tackles the relevant multi-disciplinary research questions, but also is able to make a holistic system analysis of the expected feedbacks. In this paper, we introduce the research agenda of the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX), a multi-scale, multi-disciplinary and international program started in 2012 (https://www.atm.helsinki.fi/peex/). PEEX sets a research approach by which large-scale research topics are investigated from a system perspective and which aims to fill the key gaps in our understanding of the feedbacks and interactions between the land–atmosphere–aquatic–society continuum in the northern Eurasian region. We introduce here the state of the art for the key topics in the PEEX research agenda and present the future prospects of the research, which we see relevant in this context.

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Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX): Towards holistic understanding of the feedbacks and interactions in the land–atmosphere–ocean–society continuum in the Northern Eurasian region

10.5194/acp-2016-186 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Hanna K. Lappalainen ◽

Veli-Matti Kerminen ◽

Tuukka Petäjä ◽

Theo Kurten ◽

Aleksander Baklanov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Research Agenda ◽

Large Scale ◽

System Analysis ◽

Global Climate ◽

The Arctic ◽

Research Approach ◽

Natural Environments ◽

System Perspective ◽

Holistic Understanding ◽

Eurasian Region

Abstract. The Northern Eurasian regions and Arctic Ocean will very likely undergo substantial changes during the next decades. The arctic-boreal natural environments play a crucial role in the global climate via the albedo change, carbon sources and sinks, as well as atmospheric aerosol production via biogenic volatile organic compounds. Furthermore, it is expected that the global trade activities, demographic movement and use of natural resources will be increasing in the Arctic regions. There is a need for a novel research approach, which not only identifies and tackles the relevant multi-disciplinary research questions, but is also able to make a holistic system analysis of the expected feedbacks. In this paper, we introduce the research agenda of the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX), a multi-scale, multi-disciplinary and international program started in 2012 (https://www.atm.helsinki.fi/peex/). PEEX is setting a research approach where large-scale research topics are investigated from a system perspective and which aims to fill the key gaps in our understanding of the feedbacks and interactions between the land–atmosphere–aquatic–society continuum in the Northern Eurasian region. We introduce here the state of the art of the key topics in the PEEX research agenda and give the future prospects of the research which we see relevant in this context.

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The Frontier Research System for Global Change—The International Arctic Research Center (Frontier-IARC): its Origin and Tentative Science Plan

Marine Technology Society Journal ◽

10.4031/mtsj.33.1.10 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 81-84

Author(s):

Jinro Ukila ◽

Moloyoshi Ikeda

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Change ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Large Scale ◽

Global Climate ◽

Research Effort ◽

Arctic Region ◽

Research Center ◽

The Arctic ◽

Research System

The Frontier Research System for Global Change—the International Arctic Research Center (Frontier-IARC) is a research program funded by the Frontier Research System for Global Change. The program is jointly run under a cooperative agreement between the Frontier Research System for Global Change and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The aim of the program is to understand the role of the Arctic region in global climate change. The program concentrates its research effort initially on the areas of air-sea-ice interactions, bio-geochemical processes and the ecosystem. To understand the arctic climate system in the context of global climate change, we focus on mechanisms controlling arctic-subarctic interactions, and identify three key components: the freshwater balance, the energy balance, and the large-scale atmospheric processes. Knowledge of details of these components and their interactions will be gained through long-term monitoring, process studies, and modeling; our focus will be on the latter two categories.

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Developing an Integrative Model of Staff Proactive Training in the Framework of the Labor Productivity and Employment Support National Project

Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta Ekonomika ◽

10.17223/19988648/52/8 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 119-138

Author(s):

Tatyana V. Alexandrova ◽

◽

Viktor L. Popov ◽

Keyword(s):

Labor Productivity ◽

Staff Training ◽

Large Scale ◽

System Analysis ◽

Integrative Model ◽

Integrative Approach ◽

National Project ◽

Wide Range ◽

Holistic Understanding ◽

Employment Support

The implementation of the Labor Productivity and Employment Support national project for the period from 2019 to 2024 becomes a priority factor in the growth of labor productivity in enterprises of non-primary sectors of the Russian economy. The project provides for large-scale proactive training of staff of domestic enterprises in innovative methods of managing labor productivity. Proactive training is characterized by a wide range of potential effects, which are often not fully manifested in practice due to the prevalence of a fragmented approach to the development of corporate educational programs and the lack of a holistic understanding among managers of enterprises of the content of the staff training process. The aim of the study is to develop an integrative model of staff proactive training focused on the formation of transdisciplinary competencies necessary to solve complex managerial and economic problems in the field of increasing labor productivity. In the research, the authors used the methodology of an integrative approach to staff training, the methodology of critical thinking, the methodology of system analysis, the method of expert data analysis, and the statistical method. The authors conclude that the elaborated integrative model develops a model of staff competencies in the field of labor productivity management and contributes to a more efficient achievement of the goals of the Labor Productivity and Employment Support national project.

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Surface reflectivity in polar regions retrieved from TDS-1 mission data

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13036 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Frederik Kreß ◽

Maximilian Semmling ◽

Estel Cardellach ◽

Weiqiang Li ◽

Mainul Hoque ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Surface Roughness ◽

Sea Ice ◽

Large Scale ◽

Global Climate ◽

Path Loss ◽

Signal Strength ◽

Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽

The Arctic ◽

Polar Regions

In current times of a changing global climate, a special interest is focused on the large-scale recording of sea ice. Among the existing remote sensing methods, bi- statically reflected signals of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) could play an important role in fulfilling the task. Within this project, sensitivity of GNSS signal reflections to sea ice properties like its occurrence, sea ice thick- ness (SIT) and sea concentration (SIC) is evaluated. When getting older, sea ice tends go get thicker. Because of decreasing salinity, i.e. less permittivity, as well as relatively higher surface roughness of older ice, it can be assumed that reflected signal strength decreases with increasing SIT. The reflection data used were recorded in the years 2015 and 2016 by the TechDemoSat-1 (TDS-1) satellite over the Arctic and Antarctic. It includes a down-looking antenna for the reflected as well as an up-looking antenna dedicated to receive the direct sig- nal. The raw data, provided by the manufacturer SSTL, were pre-processed by IEEC/ICE-CSIC to derive georeferenced signal power values. The reflectivity was estimated by comparing the power of the up- and down-looking links. The project focuses on the signal link budget to apply necessary corrections. For this reason, the receiver antenna gain as well as the Free-Space Path Loss (FSPL) were calculated and applied for reflectivity correction. Differences of nadir and zenith antenna FSPL and gain show influence of up to 6 dB and &#8722;9 dB to 9 dB respectively on the recorded signal strength. All retrieved reflectivity values are compared to model predictions based on Fresnel coefficients but also to avail- able ancillary truth data of other remote sensing missions to identify possible patterns: SIT relations are investigated using Level-2 data of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite. The SIC comparison was done with an AMSR-2 product. The results show sensitivity of the reflectivity value to both SIT and SIC simultaneously, whereby the surface roughness is also likely to have an influence. This on-going study aims at the consolidation of retrieval algorithms for sea-ice observation. The resolution of different ice types and the retrieval of SIT and SIC based on satellite data is a challenge for future work in this respect.

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The Timing of Initial Spring Melt in the Arctic from Nimbus-7 SMMR Data (Abstract)

Annals of Glaciology ◽

10.3189/s0260305500000811 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 244-244

Author(s):

Mark R. Anderson

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Large Scale ◽

Chukchi Sea ◽

Global Climate ◽

Arctic Basin ◽

Temporal Variations ◽

The Arctic ◽

Energy Budgets ◽

Polar Regions ◽

Ice Surface

The ablation of sea ice is an important feature in the global climate system. During the melt season in the Arctic, rapid changes occur in sea-ice surface conditions and areal extent of ice. These changes alter the albedo and vary the energy budgets. Understanding the spatial and temporal variations of melt is critical in the polar regions. This study investigates the spring onset of melt in the seasonal sea-ice zone of the Arctic Basin through the use of a melt signature derived by Anderson and others from the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data. The signature is recognized in the “gradient ratio” of the 18 and 37 GHz vertical brightness temperatures used to distinguish multi-year ice. A spuriously high fraction of multi-year ice appears rapidly during the initial melt of sea ice, when the snow-pack on the ice surface has started to melt. The brightness-temperature changes are a result of either enlarged snow crystals or incipient puddles forming at the snow/ice interface.The timing of these melt events varies geographically and with time. Within the Arctic Basin, the melt signatures are observed first in the Chukchi and Kara/Barents Seas. As the melt progresses, the location of the melt signature moves westward from the Chukchi Sea and eastward from the Kara/Barents Seas to the Laptev Sea region. The timing of the melt signal also varies with year. For example, the melt signature occurred first in the Chukchi Sea in 1979, while in 1980 the signature was first observed in the Kara Sea.There are also differences in the timing of melt for specific geographic locations between years. The melt signature varied almost 25 days in the Chukchi Sea region between 1979 and 1980. The other areas had changes in the 7–10 day range.The occurrence of these melt signatures can be used as an indicator of climate variability in the seasonal sea-ice zones of the Arctic. The timing of the microwave melt signature has also been examined in relation to melt observed on short-wave imagery. The melt events derived from the SMMR data are also related to the large-scale climate conditions.

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The Atlantic inflow across the Greenland-Scotland ridge in global climate models (CMIP5)

Elem Sci Anth ◽

10.1525/elementa.354 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Céline Heuzé ◽

Marius Årthun

Keyword(s):

Heat Transport ◽

North Atlantic ◽

Large Scale ◽

Climate Models ◽

Global Climate ◽

Global Climate Models ◽

The Arctic ◽

Nordic Seas ◽

The North ◽

The North Atlantic

Oceanic heat transport from the North Atlantic to the Arctic through the Nordic Seas is a key component of the climate system that has to be modelled accurately in order to predict, for example, future Arctic sea ice changes or European climate. Here we quantify biases in the climatological state and dynamics of the transport of oceanic heat into the Nordic Seas across the Greenland-Scotland ridge in 23 state-of-the-art global climate models that participated in the Climate Model Intercomparison Project phase 5. The mean poleward heat transport, its seasonal cycle and interannual variability are inconsistently represented across these models, with a vast majority underestimating them and a few models greatly overestimating them. The main predictor for these biases is the resolution of the model via its representation of the Greenland-Scotland ridge bathymetry: the higher the resolution, the larger the heat transport through the section. The second predictor is the large-scale ocean circulation, which is also connected to the bathymetry: models with the largest heat transport import water from the European slope current into all three straits of the Greenland-Scotland ridge, whereas those with a weak transport import water from the Labrador Sea. The third predictor is the spatial pattern of their main atmospheric modes of variability (North Atlantic Oscillation, East Atlantic and Scandinavian patterns), where the models with a weak inflow have their atmospheric low-pressure centre shifted south towards the central Atlantic. We argue that the key to a better representation of the large-scale oceanic heat transport from the North Atlantic to the Arctic in global models resides not only in higher resolution, but also in a better bathymetry and representation of the complex ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions.

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Model simulations of arctic biogeochemistry and permafrost extent are highly sensitive to the implemented snow scheme

10.5194/bg-2021-121 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alexandra Pongracz ◽

David Wårlind ◽

Paul A. Miller ◽

Frans-Jan W. Parmentier

Keyword(s):

Snow Cover ◽

Large Scale ◽

Global Climate ◽

Single Layer ◽

Physical Factor ◽

Cold Season ◽

The Arctic ◽

Soil Conditions ◽

Cold Bias ◽

Climate Feedbacks

Abstract. The Arctic is warming rapidly, especially in winter, which is causing large-scale reductions in snow cover. Snow is one of the main controls on soil thermodynamics, and changes in its thickness and extent affect both permafrost thaw and soil biogeochemistry. Since soil respiration during the cold season potentially offsets carbon uptake during the growing season, it is essential to achieve a realistic simulation of the effect of snow cover on soil conditions to more accurately project the direction of arctic carbon-climate feedbacks under continued winter warming. The Lund-Potsdam-Jena General Ecosystem Simulator (LPJ-GUESS) dynamic vegetation model has used – up until now – a single layer snow scheme, which underestimated the insulation effect of snow, leading to a cold bias in soil temperature. To address this shortcoming, we developed and integrated a dynamic, multi-layer snow scheme in LPJ-GUESS. The new snow scheme performs well in simulating the insulation of snow at hundreds of locations across Russia compared to observations. We show that improving this single physical factor enhanced simulations of permafrost extent compared to an advanced permafrost product. Besides soil thermodynamics, the new snow scheme resulted in increased winter respiration and an overall lower soil carbon content due to warmer soil conditions. The Dynamic scheme also influenced vegetation dynamics, resulting in an improved vegetation distribution and tundra-taiga boundary simulation. This study highlights the importance of a correct representation of snow in ecosystem models to project biogeochemical processes that govern climate feedbacks. The new dynamic snow scheme is an essential improvement in the simulation of cold season processes, which reduces the uncertainty of model projections. These developments contribute to a better understanding of the Arctic's role in the global climate system.

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The Evolving Arctic in the World-System

Journal of World-Systems Research ◽

10.5195/jwsr.2021.1042 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 468-493

Author(s):

Zachary Lavengood

Keyword(s):

System Analysis ◽

Global Climate ◽

World System ◽

The Arctic ◽

World Systems ◽

Economic Opportunities ◽

The World ◽

Fundamental Shift ◽

Unique Core ◽

Systems Studies

Global climate change’s continuing effect on the Arctic has brought about a fundamental shift in the region’s identity as it becomes an ever more active area in the world-system. Economic opportunities such as new shipping routes and a bounty of natural resources that were hitherto ice-locked are becoming accessible as the pace of climate change quickens, garnering increasing attention from actors around the world-system. This article explores the new geopolitical and economic realities of the Arctic through the lens of world-system analysis by examining the region’s budding role in the world-economy and emerging economic opportunities, its unique core-peripheral nature, and its potential to spark a regional hegemonic rivalry between NATO and a Sino-Russian partnership. This article aims introduce the evolving Arctic to world-systems studies and promote further research on the region using the theoretical framework.

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The Timing of Initial Spring Melt in the Arctic from Nimbus-7 SMMR Data (Abstract)

Annals of Glaciology ◽

10.1017/s0260305500000811 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 244

Author(s):

Mark R. Anderson

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Large Scale ◽

Chukchi Sea ◽

Global Climate ◽

Arctic Basin ◽

Temporal Variations ◽

The Arctic ◽

Energy Budgets ◽

Polar Regions ◽

Ice Surface

The ablation of sea ice is an important feature in the global climate system. During the melt season in the Arctic, rapid changes occur in sea-ice surface conditions and areal extent of ice. These changes alter the albedo and vary the energy budgets. Understanding the spatial and temporal variations of melt is critical in the polar regions. This study investigates the spring onset of melt in the seasonal sea-ice zone of the Arctic Basin through the use of a melt signature derived by Anderson and others from the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data. The signature is recognized in the “gradient ratio” of the 18 and 37 GHz vertical brightness temperatures used to distinguish multi-year ice. A spuriously high fraction of multi-year ice appears rapidly during the initial melt of sea ice, when the snow-pack on the ice surface has started to melt. The brightness-temperature changes are a result of either enlarged snow crystals or incipient puddles forming at the snow/ice interface. The timing of these melt events varies geographically and with time. Within the Arctic Basin, the melt signatures are observed first in the Chukchi and Kara/Barents Seas. As the melt progresses, the location of the melt signature moves westward from the Chukchi Sea and eastward from the Kara/Barents Seas to the Laptev Sea region. The timing of the melt signal also varies with year. For example, the melt signature occurred first in the Chukchi Sea in 1979, while in 1980 the signature was first observed in the Kara Sea. There are also differences in the timing of melt for specific geographic locations between years. The melt signature varied almost 25 days in the Chukchi Sea region between 1979 and 1980. The other areas had changes in the 7–10 day range. The occurrence of these melt signatures can be used as an indicator of climate variability in the seasonal sea-ice zones of the Arctic. The timing of the microwave melt signature has also been examined in relation to melt observed on short-wave imagery. The melt events derived from the SMMR data are also related to the large-scale climate conditions.

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Diffusive Staircases in Shear: Dynamics and Heat Transport

Journal of Physical Oceanography ◽

10.1175/jpo-d-20-0193.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Justin M. Brown ◽

Timour Radko

Keyword(s):

Heat Transport ◽

Large Scale ◽

Climate Models ◽

Global Climate ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Dynamic Environment ◽

Global Climate Models ◽

The Arctic ◽

Boussinesq Fluid ◽

Background Shear

AbstractArctic staircases mediate the heat transport from the warm water of Atlantic origin to the cooler waters of the Arctic mixed layer. For this reason, staircases have received much due attention from the community, and their heat transport has been well characterized for systems in the absence of external forcing. However, the ocean is a dynamic environment with large-scale currents and internal waves being omnipresent, even in regions shielded by sea-ice. Thus, we have attempted to address the effects of background shear on fully developed staircases using numerical simulations. The code, which is pseudo-spectral, evolves the governing equations for a Boussinesq fluid with temperature and salinity in a shearing coordinate system. We find that—– unlike many other double-diffusive systems—the sheared staircase requires three-dimensional simulations to properly capture the dynamics. Our simulations predict shear patterns that are consistent with observations and show that staircases in the presence of external shear should be expected to transport heat and salt at least twice as efficiently as in the corresponding non-sheared systems. These findings may lead to critical improvements in the representation of micro-scale mixing in global climate models.

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