The Arctic is warming up two to three times faster than the rest of the world. This phenomenon is known as arctic amplification. In order to contribute to the understanding of this warming, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has been funding Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio ‘Arctic Amplification’ (AC)³ since 2016. It includes modelling and data analysis effort as well as observational elements.
The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society has been published by the U.S. Meteorological Society since 1920. It first brought out the article on ‘First Results and Prospects of the Project’ online in January. Now, it is the cover topic of the print edition.
Short-term changes and indications of long-term trends in the Arctic climate parameters were identified by the scientists on the basis of existing and new data. They found, for example, that the Arctic atmosphere has become much more humid and that regional storm activity is increasing. Warming in winter in the regions around Svalbard and the North Pole has intensified, resulting in a decrease in the thickness of sea ice in the Fram Strait and the depth of snow on the ice.
“With the description of the article on the cover, the work of our entire team will receive a kind of international accolade,” said Professor Dr. Manfred Wendisch, meteorologist at the University of Leipzig and member of the CRC’s directorate. “The publication will help to make our results even more visible beyond the narrower circle of specialists within the entire international meteorological community.”
The project has accumulated a wealth of ground-, air-, ship- and satellite-based data on the physical, chemical and meteorological properties of the Arctic atmosphere, cryosphere and upper ocean available to the Arctic climate research community. 1,700 data sets alone are stored on a freely accessible research data server. Coupled atmospheric-ocean models were continuously driven forward. “Scientists in Cologne are using novel instruments and high-resolution simulations to understand the role of clouds in Arctic amplification,” said Professor Dr Susanne Crewell from the Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology at the University of Cologne.
In order to better link the results with each other in the future, the researchers are further developing cross-sectional topics that aim to answer key questions in four priority areas: Feedback of the rate of temperature decrease with altitude, surface processes, arctic mixed-phase clouds, as well as transport and conversion of air masses.
Collaborative Research Center/Transregio ‘Arctic Amplification’ (AC)³
In addition to the University of Leipzig, the research network (AC)³ also includes the universities in Cologne and Bremen, as well as the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig. The aim of the network is to monitor the dramatic climate development in the Arctic with various methods in order to improve the reliability of models for predicting the observed warming in the Arctic.
Media Contact:
Professor Dr Susanne Crewell
Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology
+49 221 470 5286
susanne.crewell
uni-koeln.de
Press and Communications Team:
Jan Voelkel
+49 221 470 2356
j.voelkelverw.uni-koeln.de
Publication:
Article ‘First Results and Prospects of the Project’:
https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-21-0218.1
Further information:
SFB/TRR 172 "Arctic Amplification (AC)3"
Website Prof Dr Susanne Crewell
Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology