A - C
type: Concept

AICI
type: Concept
in scheme: projects
definition: Short Title: AICI-IPY Project URL: http://www.esei.purdue.edu/aici/ Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=20 The polar atmosphere is often considered both pristine and simple. However, there is a strong dynamic between the lower atmosphere and ice surfaces. Over the polar plateau, production in the snowpack controls the chemistry of the lower atmosphere. Halogen chemistry over the sea ice zone depletes boundary layer ozone, and causes mercury deposition. Persistent organic compounds undergo a distillation which leads to their deposition in polar regions. Biochemical processes in open leads play a major role in formation of cloud condensation (CCN) and ice forming nuclei (IFN), and through cloud formation this process may play a vital role in ice-albedo climate feedbacks. The IGBP projects, IGAC and SOLAS, have jointly endorsed a task, Air-Ice Chemical Interactions, to determine the importance of these processes, and assess how they would alter with a warming climate and shrinking cryosphere. IPY offers a unique opportunity to determine the spatio-temporal pattern of chemistry and processes from the ice surface through the boundary layer, including cloud formation, by linking various field activities carried out in the same year. AICI-IPY will provide an overall framework, arrange supporting laboratory and modeling studies and integration of remote sensing data, and organise synthesis meetings. This work will support and link these more focused field activities: Polar plateau intensives: studying the influence of the snowpack, and boundary layer structure, by measuring concentrations, fluxes and processes at sites with different characteristics. Summit, Greenland has a long pedigree in air-snow studies, and this will be extended under AICI-IPY. The ANTCI group at South Pole expect to carry out further campaigns in IPY. AICI-IPY scientists will aim to add activities at Concordia (Antarctica). The Arctic Summer Cloud-Ocean Study (…