PhD students Julie Pasquier, Joerg Wieder and Guangyu Li and their supervisors Jan Henneberger and Zamin Kanji are researching Arctic aerosol and cloud properties in Ny Alesund, Svalbard (78.9° N, 11.90° E). Being part of the Atmospheric Physics group of Prof. Ulrike Lohmann, the objective of the research is to get a better understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions and their influence on Arctic climate. As part of the project the Experimental Atmospheric Physics group ETHZ is also sampling warm cloud and biological particles using instruments provided by the LAPI group (EPFL). The Swiss Polar Institute has co-funded the research container and the HOLOballoon they are going to use for data collection.
SPI co-owns two research containers, one of which is currently in use on the Polarstern in the framework of the MOSAiC campaign and the other which is presently in Svalbard. When not in use by the funding groups at EPFL, ETHZ and PSI, these containers can be put at the disposal of the Swiss research community.