Arctic Space Centre and Sodankylä Space Campus, News

Airborne greenhouse gas measurements over Northern Finland help constrain the global methane budget

UK FAAM aircraft on a previous pass over the wetland research site near Sodankylä. Photo courtesy Prof. Euan Nisbet

Worldwide observations have shown that the amount of methane in the Earth’s atmosphere is rising rapidly, especially since 2014. The causes of the unexpectedly fast methane increase remain a subject of scientific debate. It is possible that wetlands have accelerated the methane rise.

In the context of global wetland emission research the UK’s Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurement (FAAM) conducted research flights over Northern Finland on July 31 and August 1, 2019.  The aircraft study is part of the UK Natural Environment Research Council’s “Project MOYA – the Global Methane Budget”, in collaboration with FMI. The flight in August overpassed surface measurement sites at Pallas, Sodankylä and Kaamanen. Also airborne profile measurements were performed in the vicinity of the Sodankylä Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) station.

More information:

Dr. Rigel Kivi, Senior Scientist, Finnish Meteorological Institute, rigel.kivi@fmi.fi

Leave a Reply