Browsing by master's degree program "Ilmakehätieteiden maisteriohjelma (Atmospheric Sciences)"

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.

Zooplankton are an important link in marine pelagic food webs as they transfer energy from primary producers to higher trophic levels such as planktivorous fish. They migrate vertically in the water column, ascending to feed near the surface at night and descending to hide from visual predators for the day (diel vertical migration, DVM). Zooplankton are detected with Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs). These devices were developed for measuring water currents using acoustic pulses, a technique which requires particles such as zooplankton in the water column to scatter the sound. As a by-product of the velocity measurements, it provides information of these scatterers as echo intensity. This method has been used in researching zooplankton DVM, however, not in the northern Baltic Sea prior to this study. In this thesis, the data processing steps required to analyze echo intensity were examined for the specific environment of the Finnish Archipelago Sea. A one-year-long time-series was processed and averaged seasonally to investigate different patterns in zooplankton DVM. Vertical velocity data were used in estimating migration speed, and available reference measurements were combined to the data to examine the environmental factors affecting zooplankton DVM. Synchronized DVM was observed especially in autumn, however, indications of other migration patterns such as unsynchronized and reverse migration were detected during summer and winter, respectively. The primary cue behind zooplankton DVM was light, but additional contributing factors such as phytoplankton and currents were identified and discussed. The maximum migration speeds detected were approximately 10 cm/s downwards and 4 cm/s upwards. ADCP data are a good indicator of zooplankton migration in the northern Baltic Sea and in the future, it could prove beneficial in zooplankton monitoring and biomass estimates.

In this thesis we try to find the measurement accuracy of our dronebound wind measurement setup and if the quality of the measurements is high enough for operational usage. The thesis goes over the most important theoretical concepts concerning effects of wind in the boundary layer. In the thesis we analyze wind data gathered by a drone-bound anemometer, and introduce a direct method of measuring wind with a UAV. The data includes stationary wind data gathered at height of 30 metres, as well as vertical wind profiles to 500 metres above ground level. The data is compared to reference data from a 30 metre wind mast and automatic radiosoundings. The measurements were conducted in Jokioinen, Finland between the 2nd of September 2022 and 10th of October 2022. Total of 20 measurement flights were conducted, consisting of 14 stationary wind measurements and six wind profile measurements. We found out the stationary wind measurement quality to be comparable with earlier studies. The vertical wind profile measurements were found to be hard to analyze, as the reference measurement was not as compatible as we had hoped for. The difference between automatic radiosoundings and our profile measurements was distinctly greater than the difference between the stationary drone and wind mast measurements. Lastly some optimization and improvements to the measurement arrangement are discussed. The application of these improvements and modifications will be left as future endeavour for some willing individual.

Growing population in cities increases the share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions coming from urban areas. To understand the energy, water and GHG emission exchanges between urban surface and the atmosphere, modelling is a necessary tool. This is because measurements are not always available from all the different urban environments. In the case of carbon dioxide CO2 exchange, modelling is needed to provide new information on the different anthropogenic and biogenic components over various land uses. In this thesis, the aim was first to compare energy and CO2 fluxes from an urban land surface model called Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) against measurements from suburban neighbourhood in Minneapolis, USA. The second aim was to study differences in the fluxes between years in the area. The model is parameterized with surface information about the study area, which is divided into two grids, residential and recreational area. The meterological forcing data are derived from ERA5. In the first part of the study, SUEWS is run in the area from June 2006 to April 2009, and the fluxes of latent QE and sensible QH heat and CO2 are compared against eddy covariance (EC) measurements conducted in the same area in the same time period. The diurnal cycles of CO2 show that the model is able to catch the daytime values well in every season for both study area grids, but night-time positive values are difficult especially for recreational area in autumn and winter. The model also underestimates the emissions in every season in the morning and evening rush hour peaks, which are caused by traffic. Overall, CO2 flux is simulated reasonably well. The model performs very well against QE measurements, but more poorly against QH. The second part of the study extended time period from January 1995 to April 2009 to analyze the long-term variation of fluxes. These were studied independently without the measurement comparisons. Annual cumulative sum of CO2 showed great variation between the years, and the highest value was emissions of 1135 gCm-2year-1 in 2001 and the lowest 600 gCm-2year-1 in 2005 from the residential area. Annual cumulative sums of QE did not show so much variation. The reason behind the differences between these two years was the great variation of photosynthesis. In 2001 air temperature restrained photosynthesis when surface conductance and its environmental factors were further studied. No statistical difference between the years 2001 and 2005 was though found.

Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), a water mass that sinks to form the deepest limb of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC), is a key control on the ventilation of the Southern Ocean as well as global exchanges of heat, freshwater, and carbon. Sources of this water mass include latent heat polynyas found in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica, which expose the Southern Ocean to the colder atmosphere and are important sources of high salinity shelf water (HSSW). This water mass is the precursor to Dense Shelf Water (DSW) which can be exported from the continental shelf to form Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). In this study, Lagrangian particle tracking of water masses within Prydz Bay was used to investigate the roles of seasonality, bathymetry, and the presence of other water masses on the mechanisms of water mass transformation (WMT), a series of key processes in the MOC. Online particles were released weekly within the Prydz Bay polynya region in a 10 km resolution simulation of the Whole Antarctic Ocean Model (WAOM10) and their forward trajectories were tracked for one year. Results highlight the export of Prydz Bay water along the westward Antarctic Slope Current (ASC). Cluster analysis of the results shows a winter signal for bottom water forming particles. When advected beneath the ice shelf, polynya water can mix with fresh meltwater, becoming less dense and forming ice shelf water (ISW). After this polynya-originating water departs the ice shelf again, its increased buoyancy can make future AABW formation less likely. This study confirms that the presence of modified circumpolar deep water (mCDW) can play a controlling factor in rates of DSW export as bottom water. Results show export of DSW from the Prydz Channel and Cape Darnley, mixing either along or across isopycnals depending on the influence of other water masses and cross-slope flow. Interactions with the ASC and major topographic features including the Enderby Land projection and several underwater canyons appear to influence the export of water to the deep ocean. WAOM10 finds realistic ratios of AABW formation as compared with observational data and shows greater low-density water formation than other models.