The effect of aerosol loading on solar radiation and the subsequent effect on photosynthesis is a relevant question for estimating climate feedback mechanisms. This effect is quantified in the present study using ground-based measurements from five remote sites in boreal and hemiboreal (coniferous and mixed) forests of Eurasia. The diffuse fraction of global radiation associated with the direct effect of aerosols, i.e. excluding the effect of clouds, increases with an increase in the aerosol loading. The increase in the diffuse fraction of global radiation from approximately 0.11 on days characterized by low aerosol loading to 0.2–0.27 on days with relatively high aerosol loading leads to an increase in gross primary production (GPP) between 6 % and 14 % at all sites. The largest increase in GPP (relative to days with low aerosol loading) is observed for two types of ecosystems: a coniferous forest at high latitudes and a mixed forest at the middle latitudes. For the former ecosystem the change in GPP due to the relatively large increase in the diffuse radiation is compensated for by the moderate increase in the light use efficiency. For the latter ecosystem, the increase in the diffuse radiation is smaller for the same aerosol loading, but the smaller change in GPP due to this relationship between radiation and aerosol loading is compensated for by the higher increase in the light use efficiency. The dependence of GPP on the diffuse fraction of solar radiation has a weakly pronounced maximum related to clouds.

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.

Eight surface observation sites providing quasi-continuous measurements of atmospheric methane mixing ratios have been operated since the mid-2000's in Siberia. For the first time in a single work, we assimilate 1 year of these in situ observations in an atmospheric inversion. Our objective is to quantify methane surface fluxes from anthropogenic and wetland sources at the mesoscale in the Siberian lowlands for the year 2010. To do so, we first inquire about the way the inversion uses the observations and the way the fluxes are constrained by the observation sites. As atmospheric inversions at the mesoscale suffer from mis-quantified sources of uncertainties, we follow recent innovations in inversion techniques and use a new inversion approach which quantifies the uncertainties more objectively than the previous inversion systems. We find that, due to errors in the representation of the atmospheric transport and redundant pieces of information, only one observation every few days is found valuable by the inversion. The remaining high-resolution quasi-continuous signal is representative of very local emission patterns difficult to analyse with a mesoscale system. An analysis of the use of information by the inversion also reveals that the observation sites constrain methane emissions within a radius of 500 km. More observation sites than the ones currently in operation are then necessary to constrain the whole Siberian lowlands. Still, the fluxes within the constrained areas are quantified with objectified uncertainties. Finally, the tolerance intervals for posterior methane fluxes are of roughly 20 % (resp. 50 %) of the fluxes for anthropogenic (resp. wetland) sources. About 50–70 % of Siberian lowlands emissions are constrained by the inversion on average on an annual basis. Extrapolating the figures on the constrained areas to the whole Siberian lowlands, we find a regional methane budget of 5–28 TgCH₄ for the year 2010, i.e. 1–5 % of the global methane emissions. As very few in situ observations are available in the region of interest, observations of methane total columns from the Greenhouse Gas Observing SATellite (GOSAT) are tentatively used for the evaluation of the inversion results, but they exhibit only a marginal signal from the fluxes within the region of interest.

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.

A four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) method is a popular algorithm for inverting atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) measurements. In order to meet the computationally intense 4D-Var iterative calculation, offline forward and adjoint transport models are developed based on the Nonhydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM). By introducing flexibility into the temporal resolution of the input meteorological data, the forward model developed in this study is not only computationally efficient, it is also found to nearly match the transport performance of the online model. In a transport simulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), the data-thinning error (error resulting from reduction in the time resolution of the meteorological data used to drive the offline transport model) is minimized by employing high temporal resolution data of the vertical diffusion coefficient; with a low 6-hourly temporal resolution, significant concentration biases near the surface are introduced. The new adjoint model can be run in discrete or continuous adjoint mode for the advection process. The discrete adjoint is characterized by perfect adjoint relationship with the forward model that switches off the flux limiter, while the continuous adjoint is characterized by an imperfect but reasonable adjoint relationship with its corresponding forward model. In the latter case, both the forward and adjoint models use the flux limiter to ensure the monotonicity of tracer concentrations and sensitivities. Trajectory analysis for high CO₂ concentration events are performed to test adjoint sensitivities. We also demonstrate the potential usefulness of our adjoint model for diagnosing tracer transport. Both the offline forward and adjoint models have computational efficiency about 10 times higher than the online model. A description of our new 4D-Var system that includes an optimization method, along with its application in an atmospheric CO₂ inversion and the effects of using either the discrete or continuous adjoint method, is presented in an accompanying paper Niwa et al.(2016).

Black carbon (BC) emissions from open biomass burning (BB) are known to have a considerable impact on the radiative budget of the atmosphere at both global and regional scales; however, these emissions are poorly constrained in models by atmospheric observations, especially in remote regions. Here, we investigate the feasibility of constraining BC emissions from BB using satellite observations of the aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) and the aerosol extinction optical depth (AOD) retrieved from OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) measurements, respectively. We consider the case of Siberian BB BC emissions, which have the strong potential to impact the Arctic climate system. Using aerosol remote sensing data collected at Siberian sites of the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) along with the results of the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment (FLAME-4), we establish an empirical parameterization relating the ratio of the elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) contents in BB aerosol to the ratio of AAOD and AOD at the wavelengths of the satellite observations. Applying this parameterization to the BC and OC column amounts simulated using the CHIMERE chemistry transport model, we optimize the parameters of the BB emission model based on MODIS measurements of the fire radiative power (FRP); we then obtain top-down optimized estimates of the total monthly BB BC amounts emitted from intense Siberian fires that occurred from May to September 2012. The top-down estimates are compared to the corresponding values obtained using the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED4) and the Fire Emission Inventory–northern Eurasia (FEI-NE). Our simulations using the optimized BB aerosol emissions are verified against AAOD and AOD data that were withheld from the estimation procedure. The simulations are further evaluated against in situ EC and OC measurements at the Zotino Tall Tower Observatory (ZOTTO) and also against aircraft aerosol measurement data collected in the framework of the Airborne Extensive Regional Observations in SIBeria (YAK-AEROSIB) experiments. We conclude that our BC and OC emission estimates, considered with their confidence intervals, are consistent with the ensemble of the measurement data analyzed in this study. Siberian fires are found to emit 0.41±0.14 Tg of BC over the whole 5-month period considered; this estimate is a factor of 2 larger and a factor of 1.5 smaller than the corresponding estimates based on the GFED4 (0.20 Tg) and FEI-NE (0.61 Tg) data, respectively. Our estimates of monthly BC emissions are also found to be larger than the BC amounts calculated using the GFED4 data and smaller than those calculated using the FEI-NE data for any of the 5 months. Particularly large positive differences of our monthly BC emission estimates with respect to the GFED4 data are found in May and September. This finding indicates that the GFED4 database is likely to strongly underestimate BC emissions from agricultural burns and grass fires in Siberia. All of these differences have important implications for climate change in the Arctic, as it is found that about a quarter of the huge BB BC mass emitted in Siberia during the fire season of 2012 was transported across the polar circle into the Arctic. Overall, the results of our analysis indicate that a combination of the available satellite observations of AAOD and AOD can provide the necessary constraints on BB BC emissions.