Contact: Kerstin Ebell

AWIPEV is the French-German Arctic Research Base operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV). AWIPEV is part of the Ny-Ålesund Research Station. Within the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TR 172 “ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)³” ((AC)³), the University of Cologne collaborates with AWI in the long-term observations at the Atmospheric Observatory.
Ny-Ålesund is located on the northwest coast of Svalbard, on the south side of Kongsfjorden. The area is mountainous, featuring seasonal snow cover, a typical tundra system, and glaciers.

Except for the Pluvio (location B in map), the instruments of the University of Cologne are located on the roof of the AWIPEV Atmospheric Observatory (location A in map). The coordinates of the AWIPEV atmospheric observatory are

• Latitude: 78° 55' 22.8“ N = 78.92327 °N
• Longitude: 11° 55' 15.6” E = 11.92216 °E
• Altitude: 11 m asl (ground) + 8 m (height of roof platform)

Within (AC)³, researchers at the University of Cologne, University Bremen, and AWI characterize the thermodynamic structure, clouds, aerosols, and trace gases in the atmospheric column at Ny-Ålesund on a long-term basis. In Cologne, the research focus is on remote sensing of the thermodynamic structure, water vapor, cloud macro- and microphysical properties and precipitation by combining the established observations at AWIPEV and Uni Cologne instrumentation, e.g., a cloud radars, micro rain radar. The ground-based observations at Ny-Ålesund are accompanied by satellite, aircraft, and ship measurements, as well as modeling studies on various scales.

Specific scientific questions are

• To what extent and with which accuracy can we gain insight into the thermodynamic, trace gas, aerosol, and cloud macro- and microphysical properties at Ny-Ålesund?
• What is their impact on the radiation and energy budget throughout the vertical extent from the surface to the lower mesosphere?
• How do Arctic low-level clouds respond to global climate change?
• How representative are the Ny-Ålesund observations across other Arctic sites?

A list of the project related publications can be found here.

Quicklook browser for data of University of Cologne and selected AWIPEV instrumentation

If you are interested in data, please contact Kerstin Ebell

We gratefully acknowledge the funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG712 (German Research Foundation) - project number 268020496 - TRR 172, within the Transregional Collaborative Research Center “ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3”. We deeply thank the AWIPEV station team for technical support, maintenance, and operation of the instruments within the project AWIPEV_0016.