Browsing by master's degree program "Magisterprogrammet i atmosfärsvetenskaper"

Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) is one of the economically most important tree species in Finland. It is known to be drought-sensitive species and expected to suffer from the warming climate. In addition, warmer temperatures benefit pest insect Eurasian spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus L.) and pathogen Heterobasidion parviporum, which both use Norway spruce as their host and can make the future of Norway spuce in Finland even more difficult. In this thesis, adult Norway spruce mortality was studied from false colour aerial photographs taken in years between 2010 and 2021. Dead trees were detected from the photos by visual inspection, and mortality was calculated based on the difference in the number of dead trees in the photos from different years. The aim was to find out if Norway spruce mortality in Finland had increased over time, and what were the factors that had been driving tree mortality. The results indicate that tree mortality was the highest in the last third of the studied 10-year period, so it was concluded that tree mortality had increased over time. Various possible tree mortality drivers were analysed and found to be connected to tree mortality. Each driver was analysed individually by testing correlation with tree mortality. In addition, linear regression analysis and segmented linear regression with one breakpoint were used with the continuous variables. Increased tree mortality correlated with higher stand mean age, mean height, mean diamater, and mean volume, supporting the findings in earlier research. Mortality was connected to the proportion of different tree species in the stand: the higher the proportion of spruce, the higher the mortality, and the higher the proportion of deciduous trees, the lower the mortality. Of different fertility classes, tree mortality was the highest in the second most fertile class, herb-rich heat forest, and mortality decreased with decreasing fertility. Dead trees were also found to be located closer to stand edges than the stand centroid. Increased temperature resulted in increased mortality. Increased vapour pressure deficit (VPD) and drought, which was analysed with Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) of different time scales, were also connected with increased tree mortality. Further research is required for understanding and quantifying the joint effect of all the interacting mortality drivers. Nevertheless, it seems that for Norway spruce, the warmer future with increased mortality is already here, and it should be taken into consideration in forest management. Favouring mixed stands could be one of the solutions to help Norway spruce survive in the warming climate.

Sand and dust storms are one of the major regional environmental problems that affect human health. Many environmental studies have focused on airborne dust concentrations observed at different regions and have tried to connect the observations to specific dust source regions. This thesis aims to provide a new dust classifications scheme for the Eastern Mediterranean region, specifically observed in Amman, Jordan. I utilized a combination of a long-term data-base consisting of aerosol particle number concentration in coarse mode (1–10 µm) during November 2013 – July 2018 and air mass back trajectories analysis to visually identify the Sand and Dust Storm (SDS) episodes. The classification included three main source regions of for the submicron dust, namely Sahara, Arabia, and Levant. I also classified the data according to the, episode intensity according to their corresponding number concentrations as no-dust, mild, intermediate, and strong intensities and further classified the range of back trajectories as short, intermediate, long, and very long, which indicates the distance between the observation site and the source region.. The results showed that majority of the dust events and an elevated number of dust days are influenced by a source in Levant and Sahara source region. These events which dominated during 70 days in 2016. The Levant source governed during 60 days during the same period. Other dust sources contributed less to the dusty days, and the lowest dusty days number was due to emissions from Levant & Arabia (19 days). The episode intensity varied censurably and underlined variability from the different source areas. The maximum intensity in the dust episode concentration was linked to Levant & Sahara with a max number concentration of 95 /cm3. The classification method was successful and it was able to establish a dust source database in the Eastern Mediterranean region based on the long-term observations performed in Amman with variable dust concentration and dust periods in different seasons and different meteorological circumstances.

Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) participate in controlling the climate, and a better understading of their number concentrations is needed to constrain the current uncertainties in Earth’s energy budget. However, estimating the global CCN concentrations is difficult using only localised in-situ measurements. To overcome this, different proxies and parametrisations for CCN have been developed. In this thesis, accumulation mode particles were used as a substitute for CCN, and continental proxy for number concentration of N100 was developed with CO and temperature as tracers for anthropogenic and biogenic emissions. The data utilised in the analysis contained N100 measurements from 22 sites from 5 different continents as well as CO and temperature from CAMS reanalysis dataset. The thesis aimed to construct a global continental proxy. In addition to this, individual proxies for each site (the site proxy) and proxies trained with other sites’ data (the site excluded proxy) were developed. The performance of these proxies was evaluated using a modified version of K-fold cross-validation, which allowed estimating the effect of dataset selection on the results. Additionally, time series, seasonal variation, and parameter distributions for developed proxies were analysed and findings compared against known characteristics of the sites. Global proxy was developed, but no single set of parameters, that would achieve the best performance at all sites, was found. Therefore, two versions of global proxy were selected and their results analysed. For most of the sites, the site proxy performed better than the global proxies. Additionally, based on the analysis from the site excluded proxy, extrapolating the global proxy to new locations produced results with varying accuracy. Best results came from sites with low concentrations and occasional anthropogenic transport episodes. Additionally, some European rural sites performed well, whereas in mountainous sites the proxy struggled. Comparing the proxy to literature, it performed generally less well or similarly as proxies from other studies. Longer datasets and additional measurement sites could improve the proxy performance.

A stably stratified layer is often observed to form near the surface during nighttime. If the terrain is not flat, cold air near the surface can start to flow down the slope despite the wind direction above the stable layer being different. This slope flow is called katabatic wind. Katabatic winds are challenging for eddy covariance measurements that are commonly used to calculate the fluxes of gases and energy between the soil and the atmosphere. If the measurement is done above the canopy, the katabatic wind may lead to significant advective transport of gas and energy not detected by the measurement. Therefore eddy covariance measurements might underestimate the fluxes by a significant amount. Therefore it is important to understand the mechanisms of katabatic flow so that the effects of it can be taken into account when eddy covariance measurements are used in sloping terrain. This thesis determines how the katabatic flow within a boreal forest canopy in Hyytiälä, Finland depends on the static stability and depth of the stable layer within the canopy. The measurements are also compared to a simplified theory to find out how well the existing formulations of katabatic flow within canopies describe the observed conditions. Wind measurements done with sonic anemometers and temperature measurements done with distributed temperature sensing system during June-October 2019 are analyzed in this thesis to form understanding of the vertical profiles of temperature and wind within the canopy layer at the measurement site. In addition to the wind and temperature measurements, solar radiation measurements are also used to find the dominant driver for the formation of the stably stratified canopy layer. The measurement site represents typical Finnish Scots pine forest and has sloping terrain with main slope of 2° in the north-south direction. This study found evidence of katabatic northerly flow forming at the measurement site during stable nights. However, this study could not find a relation between the depth of the stable layer and strength of the katabatic flow. The katabatic flow was observed to get stronger in the open trunk space with increasing static stability within the canopy layer. The results of this study suggest, that katabatic flow follows the simplified theory well within the upper part of the canopy, where the majority of the foliage is. At lower levels within the open trunk space, the simplified model greatly underestimates the flow speed.

Fog has a significant impact on society, by making transportation and aviation industries difficult to operate as planned due to reduced visibility. Studies have estimated that 32 % of marine accidents, worldwide, and 40 %, in the Atlantic Ocean, took place during dense sea fog. Therefore forecasting fog accurately, and allowing society to function, would help mitigate financial losses associated with possible accidents and delays. However, forecasting the complex fog with numerical weather prediction (NWP) models remains difficult for the modelling community. A NWP model typically operates in the resolution of kilometres, when the multiple processes associated with fog (turbulence, cloud droplet microphysics, thermal inversion) have a smaller spatial scale than that. Consequently, some processes need to be simplified and parametrised, increasing the uncertainty, or more computational power is needed to be allocated for them. One of these NWP models is HARMONIE-AROME, which the Finnish Meteorological Institute develops in collaboration with its European colleague institutes. To improve the associated accuracy, a brand new, more complex and expensive, option for processing aerosols in HARMONIE-AROME, is presented. This near-real-time (NRT) aerosol option integrates aerosol concentrations from Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services' NRT forecast into HARMONIE-AROME. The statistical performance of the model's sea fog forecast in the Baltic Sea was studied in a case study using marine observations. The quantitative metric, proportion score, was studied. As a result, a forecast using the NRT option showed a slight deterioration in visibility (0.52 versus 0.59), a neutral improvement in cloud base height (0.52 versus 0.51), and a slight deterioration in 2-meter relative humidity (0.73 versus 0.76) forecasts with respect to the reference option. Furthermore, the score in general remained weak against observations in the case of visibility and cloud base height. In addition, based on qualitative analysis, the spatial coverage of the forecasted sea fog in both experiments was similar to the one observed by the NWCSAF Cloud Type-product. In total, the new aerosol option showed neutral or slightly worse model predictability. However, no strong conclusions should be made from this single experiment sample and more evaluations should be carried out.

Maapallon keskilämpötila on ollut selkeässä nousussa jo noin sadan vuoden ajan ja nousun odotetaan jatkuvan tulevaisuudessakin. Suurimman osan eri kuukausien keskilämpötiloista on ennustettu nousevan ilmastollisiin vertailuarvoihin suhteutettuna normaalia korkeammiksi. Lämpeneminen vaikuttaa etenkin korkeiden leveysasteiden talviin. Muutos Suomen lämpötiloissa sekä pohjois- ja eteläosien välisessä lämpötilaerossa on huomattavasti suurempi talvisin kuin kesäisin. Talvi 2019-2020 oli Suomessa ennätyksellisen lämmin. Tässä tutkimuksessa pyrin kartoittamaan kuinka poikkeava talvi 2019-2020 oli lämpötilojen suhteen edellisten 30 talven muodostamaan vertailukauteen verrattuna. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kuutta kuukautta, loka-maaliskuu, ja vertailukauden on valittu olevan tammikuusta 1989 – maaliskuuhun 2019. Lisäksi käsitellään korkeiden lämpötilojen todennäköisimpiä aiheuttajia tarkastelemalla valittuja perusmuuttujia; paine, geopotentiaalikorkeus, ominaiskosteus, ilmapilarin kokonaiskosteus ja yläilmakehän tuulen nopeus ja suunta. Lämpimimmät poikkeamat havaittiin joulu-helmikuussa, kun lounaasta puhaltava suihkuvirtaus toi mukanaan lämpimiä, kosteita ilmamassoja sekä voimakkaita matalapaineita. Tammikuu 2020 rikkoi monilla asemilla lämpöennätyksiä ja Etelä-Keski-Suomessa vertailukauden keskiarvot ylittyivät jopa 7-8 asteella. Helmikuu oli mittaushistorian toiseksi lämpimin. Loka-marraskuu sitä vastoin olivat vertailukautta noin asteen viileämpiä ja maaliskuun puolella poikkeuksellinen lämpimyys tasoittui lähelle vertailukautta. Runsaan matalapainetoiminnan sekä ilman korkean kosteussisällön vuoksi sadetta tuli läpi talven paikoin jopa kaksi-kolminkertaisesti verrattuna keskiarvoihin.

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is a layer of the atmosphere directly influenced by the presence of Earth's surface. In addition to its importance to the weather and climate systems, it plays significant role in controlling the air pollution levels and low-level heat conditions, thereby directly influencing the general well-being. While the modification of the boundary layer conditions by varying atmospheric forcings has been widely studied and discussed, it remains unknown what the dominant states of the PBL variation in response to this modification are. In this study, the dominant boundary layer types in both daytime and nighttime layers are examined. To understand the factors contributing to the development of these layers, weather regimes in the northern Atlantic-European region are considered. Machine learning techniques are utilized to study both the boundary layer and the large-scale flow classes, with an emphasis on unsupervised learning methods. It was found that the boundary layers in Helsinki, Finland, can be categorized into four daytime and three nighttime boundary layers, each characterized by the dominant turbulence production mechanism or the absence thereof. During the daytime, layers driven by both mechanical and buoyant turbulence are observed in summer, autumn, and spring, while individually buoyancy-driven layers occur in summer and winter, and individually mechanically-driven layers emerge in autumn, winter, and spring. Additionally, a layer characterized by overall reduced turbulence production is present throughout all seasons. During the nighttime, all three boundary layer types---individually buoyancy-driven, individually mechanically-driven, and stable layer---are observed in all seasons. Each boundary layer type exhibits season-specific variations, whereas daytime and nighttime boundary layers driven by the same mechanisms reflect the diurnal cycle of their relative intensities. The analysis revealed that the weather regimes producing cyclonic and anticyclonic flow anomalies over southern Finland collectively influence the boundary layer conditions, whereas the impact of individual weather regimes remains relatively small. Large-scale flow variation is associated with changes in the boundary layer dynamics through alterations in surface radiation budget (cloudiness) and wind conditions, thereby influencing the relative intensities of mechanical and buoyant turbulence production. However, inconsistencies in the analysis suggest that additional mechanisms, such as mesoscale phenomena, must also contribute to the development of the observed boundary layer types.

Air temperatures are commonly higher in urban environments compared to rural ones. The energy input of solar radiation and its storage in urban surfaces changes the way the surface interacts with the atmosphere through turbulent fluxes and mixing processes. The complexity of radiative properties combined with the effect of urban geometry makes the magnitude of the effect radiation has on the dynamics of boundary layer flow an important area of study. The aim of this study is to understand and quantify how much the radiative processes alter the flow field and turbulence in a real urban street canyon in Helsinki. The model used is the large-eddy simulation (LES) model PALM, which solves for the flow and the most relevant atmospheric scales that describe interactions between the surface and atmosphere. An additional library called RRTMG (Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for Global Models) is used in this study to provide the radiation input impacting the boundary layer flow. Two embedded surface models in PALM, USM (Urban Surface Model) and LSM (Land-Surface Model) are used to solve the local conditions for radiative balance based on the output of RRTMG. Two model runs are made (RRTMG On & RRTMG Off), both identical in terms of the large-scale forcing boundary conditions and land-use data, but with additional radiation input in RRTMG On. The results show that radiation alters the low level stratification of potential temperature, which leads to more unstable conditions. Near-surface air temperatures within the canyon were increased by 3.9 C on average. Horizontal wind speeds increased by 76 % close to the ground compared to RRTMG Off. RRTMG On also showed a change in the structure of the topographically forced canyon vortex, as the low wind conditions enabled the radiative effects to have a stronger effect in its forcing. The center of the vortex changed in location more towards the center of the canyon and the vertical motions on opposing sides of the street were strengthened by 0.15 m/s in both vertical directions. Additionally both mechanical and thermal turbulence production increased with RRTMG On, while the thermal production remained smaller by one magnitude compared to mechanical production within Mäkelänkatu. Higher wind speeds and their variance gave rise to increased mechanical production of turbulence and radiative effects increased the thermal production. More research is however needed to determine thermal turbulence's role in situations with different meteorological conditions or in other cities.

TROPOMI eli TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument on lokakuussa 2017 Sentinel-5 Precursor -satelliitin mukana laukaistu spektrometri, joka mittaa useiden eri ilmakehän hivenkaasujen pitoisuuksia, aerosoleja sekä pilviä. Se on samalla myös uusin ja resoluutioltaan tarkin typpidioksidin (NO2) pitoisuuksia mittaava satelliitti-instrumentti. NO2:ta havainnoivien satelliitti-instrumenttien mittaukset perustuvat ilmakehästä siroavaan auringon valoon, minkä perusteella niiden algoritmit laskevat ilmakehässä olevien NO2-molekyylien lukumäärän käyttäen apuna erilaisia syötetietoja. Saadussa tuloksessa on tämän vuoksi paljon erilaisia virhelähteitä, minkä vuoksi satelliitti-instrumenttien mittausten oikeellisuutta seurataan jatkuvasti vertaamalla niitä erilaisiin referenssiaineistoihin. Tällaista seurantaa kutsutaan myös instrumentin validoinniksi, ja se on erityisen tärkeää uusien instrumenttien kuten TROPOMIn tapauksessa. Tässä työssä validoidaan TROPOMIn NO2-mittaukset käyttäen Helsingin Kumpulassa sijaitsevan Pandora-referenssi-instrumentin mittauksia. Tämän lisäksi TROPOMIn herkkyyttä lähellä maanpintaa tapahtuville pitoisuusvaihteluille arvioidaan vertaamalla sen mittauksia Kumpulassa sijaitsevan in situ -ilmanlaatuaseman mittauksiin. Lopuksi arvioidaan TROPOMIn ja Pandoran mittausten ja niiden välisen vastaavuuden riippuvuutta rajakerroksen paksuudesta ja siellä vallitsevasta tuulesta. Tutkimus ajoittuu 19.4.–29.9.2018 väliselle ajalle. Vertailuissa tarkastellaan erityisesti instrumenttien mittausten välisiä eroja (TROPOMI – Pandora) ja niiden keskiarvoa, erojen suhteellisia arvoja (suhteessa Pandoraan) ja niiden mediaania, sekä mittausten välistä Pearsonin korrelaatiokerrointa. Näiden tunnuslukujen riippuvuutta ajasta tarkastellaan eripituisia aikavälejä kattavien aikasarjojen avulla. Tulosten mukaan TROPOMIn ja Pandoran mittausten välinen Pearsonin korrelaatiokerroin on 0,66 ja niiden välisten suhteellisten erojen mediaani 12,1 %. Tätä voidaan pitää hyvänä tuloksena, sillä TROPOMIlle asetettu suhteellisten erojen tavoite on enintään 30 %. Positiivinen arvo on kuitenkin epätyypillinen kaupungissa tehtävälle validoinnille, mikä voi tarkoittaa Kumpulan alueen edustavan pitoisuuksiltaan enemmän tausta-aluetta kuin tyypillistä kaupunkiympäristöä. Mittausten välisen korrelaation havaittiin riippuvan rajakerroksen paksuudesta, mikä voi johtua TROPOMIn tulkinta-algoritmin käyttämästä NO2:n pystyprofiilista tai paksussa rajakerroksessa tapahtuvasta voimakkaammasta sekoittumisesta. Asian selvittäminen edellyttää kuitenkin lisätutkimuksia. Lopuksi TROPOMIn todettiin olevan herkkä viikon- ja päivänsisäisille pitoisuusvaihteluille Pandora-instrumenttiin verrattuna, mikä on lupaava tulos TROPOMIn mahdollisten ilmanlaadun seurantaan liittyvien sovellusten kannalta. TROPOMIn parantuneen resoluution vaikutus on tutkimuksessa nähtävissä aiempiin instrumentteihin verrattuna parantuneena korrelaationa ja positiivisempina mittauseroina, sekä herkkyytenä päivänsisäisille pitoisuusvaihteluille. TROPOMIn voidaankin odottaa tulevaisuudessa lisäävän satelliittipohjaisten NO2-mittausten käyttökohteita.

The lidar depolarisation ratio is used for aerosol categorisation as it is indicative of aerosol shape. Commonly, depolarisation ratio is measured in short term studies at short wavelengths such as 355 nm and 532 nm. The depolarisation ratio has a spectral dependency and so exploring values at longer wavelengths could be valuable for future studies. Here, aerosol depolarisation ratio at 1565 nm is measured across Finland’s ground based remote sensing network over a four year period. The Halo Photonics StreamLine Doppler lidars instruments were found to be stable over long time periods and cloud based calibration was used to correct for the bleed though. The depolarisation ratio of elevated aerosol layers was compared to boundary layer aerosol. A higher average depolarisation ratio was found for elevated aerosol with the exception of boreal forest sites in the summer months where values were similar. Elevated aerosols over Finland were found to originate mostly from the Arctic, Europe, Russia and North America using aerosol transport models. Four case studies were looked at in more detail: Saharan dust with a depolarisation ratio of 0.249 ± 0.018, pollen with a depolarisation ratio of 0.207 ± 0.013, anthropogenic pollution with a depolarisation ratio of 0.067 ± 0.009, and a mixed layer with a depolarisation ratio of 0.152 ± 0.019 thought to be pollen and smoke. Based on this study, Halo Doppler Lidar can be used to measure elevated aerosol at 1565 nm in the long term. Future studies could use 1565 nm depolarisation ratio alongside commonly used shorter wavelengths to aid aerosol categorisation.