Gothenburg researchers in Nordic climate initiative

With a total budget of around SEK 500 million over five years, the Top-level Research Initiative is one of the largest Nordic initiatives in research and innovation. The background is in the global climate changes that have increased the demands for new knowledge and new research innovations.

This applies, not least, to the cryosphere – the snow and ice-covered parts of our planet where climate changes may be seen first and most clearly.

At one of the three new Nordic research centres that are now receiving support from the initiative, the interaction between the cryosphere and the atmosphere is being studied with the help of researchers from the atmosphere science group at the Department of Chemistry, the University of Gothenburg.

The CRAICC, Cryosphere-Atmosphere Interactions in a Changing Arctic Climate, research centre is attempting to map human influence on climate changes in arctic environments, with a focus on the role short-lived air pollution has on changes to the cryosphere. The links between aerosols, clouds and the cryosphere are also being studied.

The centre is being coordinated from the University of Helsinki in Finland, and involves Gothenburg researchers Jan Pettersson, Johan Boman and Patrik Andersson, all from the Department of Chemistry.