Research project

The iAREA project is combined of experimental and theoretical research in order to contribute to new knowledge on the impact of absorbing aerosols (AA) on the climate system in the European Arctic. According to the IPCC reports and findings of researchers around the world absorbing aerosols are considered to be important contributors to the global warming, as they are a crucial component for the energy balance in the climate system.

The main goal of the iAREA project is to quantify the impact of the vertical profile of absorbing aerosols on direct radiative forcing in the European Arctic. This will be made through the experimental studies of various physical processes involving absorbing aerosols (mainly soot from human-made and natural sources, mineral dust and volcanic) and by numerical modeling of aerosols and by developing of a methodology to retrieve vertical profiles of the aerosol single-scattering properties.

The scope of the works within the project facilitates the determination of the degree of the impact, which man-made aerosols over the European Arctic have on the total radiative forcing. Finally, we want to show, that the estimation of the impact of absorbing aerosols on the climate system requires an integrative approach which combines the actual observations of vertical variability with the global circulation/transport model simulations.