Fostering multidisciplinary research on interactions between chemistry, biology, and physics within the coupled cryosphere-atmosphere system

Jennie L. Thomas (1, 2) , Jochen Stutz (3, 4) , Markus M. Frey (5) , Thorsten Bartels-Rausch (6) , Katye Altieri (7) , Foteini Baladima (1) , Jo Browse (8) , Manuel Dall’osto (9) , Louis Marelle (2, 1) , Jeremie Mouginot (1, 10) , Jennifer G. Murphy (11) , Daiki Nomura (12, 13) , Kerri A. Pratt (14, 15) , Megan D. Willis (16) , Paul Zieger (17, 18) , Jon Abbatt (11) , Thomas A. Douglas (19) , Maria Cristina Facchini (20) , James France (5, 21) , Anna E. Jones (5) , Kitae Kim (22) , Patricia A. Matrai (23) , V. Faye Mcneill (24) , Alfonso Saiz-Lopez (25) , Paul Shepson (26, 27, 28) , Nadja Steiner (29) , Kathy S. Law (2) , Steve Arnold (30) , Bruno Delille (31) , Julia Schmale (32, 33) , Jeroen E. Sonke (34) , Aurélien Dommergue (1) , Didier Voisin (1) , Megan L. Melamed (35) , Jessica Gier (36)

1 IGE - Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement
2 TROPO - LATMOS
3 AOS - Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences [Los Angeles]
4 JIFRESSE - UCLA Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering
5 BAS - British Antarctic Survey
6 LUC - Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry [Villigen]
7 Department of Oceanography [Cape Town]
8 Geography and Environmental Science [Cornwall]
9 Biologia Marina i Oceanografia [Barcelona]
10 ESS - Department of Earth System Science [Irvine]
11 Department of Chemistry [University of Toronto]
12 Faculty of Fisheries Sciences [Hakodate]
13 Arctic Research Center [Sapporo]
14 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences [Ann Arbor]
15 Department of Chemistry [Ann Arbor]
16 LBNL - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [Berkeley]
17 ACES - Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry [Stockholm]
18 Bolin Centre for Climate Research
19 CRREL - ERDC Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
20 ISAC - Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e del Clima [Bologna]
21 Department of Earth Sciences [Egham]
22 KOPRI - Korea Polar Research Institute
23 Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
24 Department of Chemical Engineering [New York]
25 IQFR - Instituto de Química Física Rocasolano
26 Department of Chemistry [West Lafayette]
27 EAPS - Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences [West Lafayette]
28 SoMAS - School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences [Stony Brook]
29 IOS - Institute of Ocean Sciences [Sidney]
30 ICAS - Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science [Leeds]
31 Unité d'Océanographie Chimique
32 LAC - Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry [Paul Scherrer Institute]
33 ENAC - School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering
34 GET - Géosciences Environnement Toulouse
35 CIRES - Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
36 GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research [Kiel]

The cryosphere, which comprises a large portion of Earth’s surface, is rapidly changing as a consequence of global climate change. Ice, snow, and frozen ground in the polar and alpine regions of the planet are known to directly impact atmospheric composition, which for example is observed in the large influence of ice and snow on polar boundary layer chemistry. Atmospheric inputs to the cryosphere, including aerosols, nutrients, and contaminants, are also changing in the anthropocene thus driving cryosphere-atmosphere feedbacks whose understanding is crucial for understanding future climate. Here, we present the Cryosphere and ATmospheric Chemistry initiative (CATCH) which is focused on developing new multidisciplinary research approaches studying interactions of chemistry, biology, and physics within the coupled cryosphere – atmosphere system and their sensitivity to environmental change. We identify four key science areas: (1) micro-scale processes in snow and ice, (2) the coupled cryosphere-atmosphere system, (3) cryospheric change and feedbacks, and (4) improved decisions and stakeholder engagement. To pursue these goals CATCH will foster an international, multidisciplinary research community, shed light on new research needs, support the acquisition of new knowledge, train the next generation of leading scientists, and establish interactions between the science community and society.

Keywords: Cryosphere; Atmospheric chemistry; Science coordiation

Domains: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; Ocean, Atmosphere

Jennie L. Thomas, Jochen Stutz, Markus M. Frey, Thorsten Bartels-Rausch, Katye Altieri, et al.. Fostering multidisciplinary research on interactions between chemistry, biology, and physics within the coupled cryosphere-atmosphere system. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 2019, 7 (1), art. 58 (16 p.). ⟨10.1525/elementa.396⟩. ⟨insu-02427862⟩