Human influence on Nordic and Arctic Climate and Air: shipping, mixed-phase clouds, and particles

Research Project, 2018 – 2020

Shipping is a key global transport sector that will significantly expand in the pan-Arctic as global warming contributes to sea ice loss. Sweden and the Nordic region sit geographically in a strategically important position for trans-Arctic shipping, and the complex calculus of how they will benefit and/or suffer is intimately linked to climatic and environmental pressures. In particular, polluting particle and gas emissions from expanded shipping in the Arctic have the potential to have serious consequences on cloud processes that are critical to the radiative (heat) balance of the Arctic and Nordic regions. With the proposed project we seek to systematically identify emission components that affect ice and water nucleation in mixed phase clouds and to quantify the potential of these point-source emissions to have cloud and regional scale impacts. Implications may be far reaching and a fundamental understanding of the consequences for polar feedbacks and amplification is critical for informing policy and decision making of Arctic states.