Finnish contribution to the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) expedition, Arctic Ocean 2008

• Main Authors: Jussi Paatero, Petri Vaattovaara, Mika Vestenius, Outi Mein, Ulla Makkonen, Rigel Kivi, Antti Hyvärinen, Eija Asmi, Michael Tjernström, Caroline Leck
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Key words; Arctic Ocean; climate change; cloud properties; air chemistry; Arctic; Longyearbyen; Svalbard; Climate change; Icebreaker; International Polar Year; oden; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.623.9263; http://www.geophysica.fi/pdf/geophysica_2009_45_1-2_119_paatero.pdf

The Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study, ASCOS, was a six-week expedition in August-September 2008 north of the 87th latitude onboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden. The expedition was a contribution to the International Polar Year 2007/2008. ASCOS studies some of the controlling factors of the low-level cloud system, especially the formation of cloud condensation and ice nuclei, over the Arctic pack ice. This will improve the accuracy of the climate models in the Arctic area where the climate is expected to change faster than in any other part of the world. A distinct feature of ASCOS is its necessarily interdisciplinary nature, which includes physical oceanography, marine and sea ice biogeochemistry, surface microlayer chemistry, aerosol, gas-phase and cloud chemistry and physics, and meteorology. The expedition sailed from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, in the beginning of August. After a week's cruise the icebreaker was moored to a several square kilometres wide ice floe north of the 87th latitude. The ship was drifting with the ice floe for a month before the return voyage to Svalbard in the early September. The Finnish contribution to the experimental part of ASCOS consisted of researchers and