Climate change in the polar regions and in the Mediterranean
Antarctic Meteo-Climatological Observatory www.climantartide.it The Antarctic Meteo-Climatological Observatory is composed by two projects funded by the Italian National Programme of Antarctic Research (PNRA, PNRA14_00019 at MZS and Victoria Land, PNRA14_00100 at Concordia) and managed by staff of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA). The Observatory aims to contribute to the understanding of climate change through the observation of the atmospheric dynamics over the Antarctic continent and its variations on different time scales. The Observatory manages a network of several Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) located at the two Stations (MZS and Concordia), in the Victoria Land and in the Eastern sector of the Antarctic Plateau. The Observatory AWS provides support for logistics operations during the Italian scientific expeditions. Measurements collected constitute a long-term database of the Antarctic meteorological conditions and it is also available for scientific studies. The Observatory integrates its activities in collaboration with other countries operating in Antarctica in order to improve the spatial and temporal information of the weather conditions and climate variability over such a vast territory.
Station for Climate Observations at Lampedusa www.lampedusa.enea.it The ENEA Station for Climate Observations on the island of Lampedusa is a research facility in the Mediterranean dedicated to measurements of climatic parameters. Lampedusa is an integrated atmospheric/oceanic observatory composed by two sections: - a ground-based laboratory (35.52°N, 12.63°E) operational since 1997 dedicated to the investigation of changes in atmospheric composition and structure, and their effects on the surface radiation; - an oceanic buoy (35.49°N, 12.47°E) dedicated to the investigation of air-sea interactions and for ground-truth of satellite observations; the buoy was installed in August 2015.
Thule High Arctic Atmospheric Observatory (THAAO), Greenland http://www.thuleatmos-it.it/ Thule High Arctic Atmospheric Observatory (THAAO) at Thule Air Base (76.5°N, 68.8°W) is located on South Mountain, at a 20-minute drive from the main base, and is superintended by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) in collaboration with Italian and US institutions. Various ground-based instruments installed in the observatory are part of the international Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC, http://www.ndsc.ncep.noaa.gov). The Italian effort at Thule started in 1990 and is based on a collaboration between personnel of Univ. of Rome “La Sapienza”, ENEA and INGV, which installed, maintained and operate a number of ground-based instruments devoted to the observation of the Arctic environment.