14 January 2022

A new study, published in Nature Communications, reports for the first time the iodine variability of the Arctic atmosphere for the last 127,000 years. By investigating two Greenland ice cores, researchers found the highest and lowest iodine levels respectively during warm interglacial and cold glacial periods. The environmental roles of iodine in the polar atmosphere are important and multiple, from modulating the energy budget to affecting atmospheric chemistry cycles and new particle formation, but its long-term variability in the Arctic has been so far unknown.
An international team of researchers led by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and with the contribution of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and other organizations from Denmark, Germany, Australia and the United States, has developed a multidisciplinary research strategy to understand the composition of the Arctic atmosphere over past glacial and interglacial cycles and what the mechanisms controlled its evolution.

14 January 2022

A new study, published in Nature Communications, reports for the first time the iodine variability of the Arctic atmosphere for the last 127,000 years. Using two Greenland ice cores, the international team found the highest and lowest iodine levels recorded during interglacial and glacial periods, including the whole last cold period called the Last Glacial Cycle, and has developed a multidisciplinary research strategy to understand the composition of the Arctic atmosphere and what the mechanisms controlled its evolution.

The analysis of the halogens contained in the ice, together with the concentrations of other elements such as calcium or sodium, has revealed how the ocean is the great regulator of iodine in the Arctic atmosphere: the variability of this element is fundamentally controlled by the dynamics of the ice pack and by the biological productivity of the oceans. The concentration of this element can potentially influence climate and this study can help researchers to better constrain the future projections of iodine atmospheric concentrations in the Arctic.
DOI:10.1038/S41467-021-27642-5 (Niccolò Maffezzoli, Ca’ Foscari, and Andrea Spolaor, CNR-ISP) - READ MORE

Mar 10, 2022 - from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM Time zone: Copenhagen, Denmark - Online

Since mid-2019 the Pan European Component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA), has been implementing a set of High Resolution Pan European Biophysical Parameter products addressing the land cryosphere. 

AGENDA - Registration

The IMC2022 will take place from September 11 – 15 2022 in Innsbruck, Austria. IMC2022 builds upon the previous mountain conferences and aims to continue this scientific conference series exclusively targeted towards mountain-research. Hosted in the Alps, IMC2022 provides an excellent opportunity for experts from different disciplines to discuss mountain-related issues in a cross-disciplinary setting with flexible session formats. The key goals of the conference are to synthesize and enhance our understanding of mountain systems, in particular their response and resilience to global change.

Abstract deadline submission 16 February 2022