Overview: Recent advances in the understanding of the northern Eurasian environments and of the urban air quality in China – a Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) programme perspective

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: Lappalainen, Hanna K., Petäjä, Tuukka, Vihma, Timo, Räisänen, Jouni, Baklanov, Alexander, Chalov, Sergey, Esau, Igor, Ezhova, Ekaterina, Leppäranta, Matti, Pozdnyakov, Dmitry, Pumpanen, Jukka, Andreae, Meinrat O., Arshinov, Mikhail, Asmi, Eija, Bai, Jianhui, Bashmachnikov, Igor, Belan, Boris, Bianchi, Federico, Biskaborn, Boris, Boy, Michael, Bäck, Jaana, Cheng, Bin, Chubarova, Natalia, Duplissy, Jonathan, Dyukarev, Egor, Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos, Forsius, Martin, Heimann, Martin, Juhola, Sirkku, Konovalov, Vladimir, Konovalov, Igor, Konstantinov, Pavel, Köster, Kajar, Lapshina, Elena, Lintunen, Anna, Mahura, Alexander, Makkonen, Risto, Malkhazova, Svetlana M., Mammarella, Ivan, Mammola, Stefano, Buenrostro Mazon, Stephany N., Meinander, Outi, Mikhailov, Eugene, Miles, Victoria, Myslenkov, Stanislav, Orlov, Dmitry, Paris, Jean-Daniel, Pirazzini, Roberta, Popovicheva, Olga, Pulliainen, Jouni, Rautiainen, Kimmo, Sachs, Torsten, Shevchenko, Vladimir, Skorokhod, Andrey, Stohl, Andreas, Suhonen, Elli Anna Julia, Thomson, Erik S., Tsidilina, Marina, Tynkkynen, Veli-Pekka, Uotila, Petteri, Virkkula, Aki Olavi, Voropay, Nadezhda, Wolf, Tobias, Yasunaka, Sayaka, Zhang, Jiahua, Qiu, Yubao, Ding, Aijun, Guo, Huadong, Bondur, Valery, Kasimov, Nikolay, Zilitinkevich, Sergej, Kerminen, Veli-Matti, Kulmala, Markku
• Other Authors: Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), INAR Physics, Global Atmosphere-Earth surface feedbacks, Polar and arctic atmospheric research (PANDA), Viikki Plant Science Centre (ViPS), Department of Forest Sciences, Forest Ecology and Management, Ecosystem processes (INAR Forest Sciences), Helsinki Institute of Physics, Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria), Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Urban Environmental Policy, Micrometeorology and biogeochemical cycles, Zoology, Earth Sciences Unit, Aleksanteri Institute - Finnish Centre for Russian and East European Studies, Russian and Eurasian Studies (Aleksanteri Institute)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH 2022
• Subjects: AEROSOL OPTICAL-PROPERTIES; ARCTIC SEA-ICE; CLOUD CONDENSATION NUCLEI; EMILIANIA-HUXLEYI BLOOMS; GROSS PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY; LONG-TERM MEASUREMENTS; NUMBER SIZE DISTRIBUTION; PARTICLE FORMATION EVENTS; TOWER OBSERVATORY ZOTTO; VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS; Physical sciences; Chemical sciences; Environmental sciences; Climate change; Sea ice; Siberia
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/343757

The Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) Science Plan, released in 2015, addressed a need for a holistic system understanding and outlined the most urgent research needs for the rapidly changing Arctic-boreal region. Air quality in China, together with the long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants, was also indicated as one of the most crucial topics of the research agenda. These two geographical regions, the northern Eurasian Arctic-boreal region and China, especially the megacities in China, were identified as a "PEEX region". It is also important to recognize that the PEEX geographical region is an area where science-based policy actions would have significant impacts on the global climate. This paper summarizes results obtained during the last 5 years in the northern Eurasian region, together with recent observations of the air quality in the urban environments in China, in the context of the PEEX programme. The main regions of interest are the Russian Arctic, northern Eurasian boreal forests (Siberia) and peatlands, and the megacities in China. We frame our analysis against research themes introduced in the PEEX Science Plan in 2015. We summarize recent progress towards an enhanced holistic understanding of the land-atmosphere-ocean systems feedbacks. We conclude that although the scientific knowledge in these regions has increased, the new results are in many cases insufficient, and there are still gaps in our understanding of large-scale climate-Earth surface interactions and feedbacks. This arises from limitations in research infrastructures, especially the lack of coordinated, continuous and comprehensive in situ observations of the study region as well as integrative data analyses, hindering a comprehensive system analysis. The fast-changing environment and ecosystem changes driven by climate change, socio-economic activities like the China Silk Road Initiative, and the global trends like urbanization further complicate such analyses. We recognize new topics with an increasing importance in the near ...