"The Arctic atmosphere is key to understanding climate change"

This summer, 40 international scientists will participate in the GLACE expedition around Greenland in order to study the effects of climate change in that region. One of the 15 projects selected for the expedition will be led by Athanasios Nenes, an atmospheric specialist at EPFL. A decrease in sea ice, changing vegetation, reduced biodiversity, plastic pollution and altered atmospheric processes: these are just some of the climate-change topics that the 40 scientists participating in the GLACE expedition will tackle. Organized by the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) and supported by the Swiss Polar Foundation, this expedition will circumnavigate Greenland clockwise for two months between the end of July and the end of September 2019 (see inset below for details). Fifteen research projects were selected to be run onboard. One of them, which will study how airborne particles influence the Arctic environment, is being led by EPFL. Athanasios Nenes, the principal investigator on that project and a professor at EPFL's Laboratory of Atmospheric Processes and their Impacts (LAPI), tells us about this important research. What is the Arctic atmosphere made of? The Arctic is a unique environment. It is one of the most climate-sensitive regions on Earth, warming twice as fast as the global average. This accelerated warming is thought to be driven by complex interactions between ice, the atmosphere, the biosphere and the ocean, and airborne particles - also known as aerosols - are thought to play a significant role in this. Much of how the particles interact with the Arctic atmosphere and climate is still unknown. What exactly will you study during the expedition?