Pallas-Sodankylä Stations

STATION NAME AND OWNER The Pallas-Sodankylä station consists of clean air research station in Pallas and Arctic Space Centre in Sodankylä. The distance between the two sites is 125 km. Both of these units are hosted and owned by Finnish Meteorological Institute. LOCATION Pallas is located in western Lapland (67°58’ N, 24°07’ E) in Pallas fell. The station is part of the national park, with limited access. Sodankylä facility (67°22’ N, 26°39’ E) is located in centre Lapland, within boreal forest region. The station is not part of any national park, but the surrounding area of the station (Ca. 2 km2) is dedicated to the atmospheric and geology research, therefore limited access. Furthermore, the area is surrounded with forest area and swamp areas owned by Finnish government. The dominant area type is boreal forest. BIODIVERSITY AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT Pallas station consists of research station in Pallas fell. Surrounding national park may be used with restrictions. The area is boreal forest, with (deserted) fell area animals and vegetation. Willow grouse, rabbit and reindeer are the most typical animals. Sodankylä station is located in the river bank, in the middle of boreal forest. Area is limited to large swamp area. The dominant area type is boreal forest, with forest animals and vegetation. Black grouse, rabbit and reindeer are the most typical animals. HISTORY AND FACILITIES The Finnish Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) station Pallas-Sodankylä has been operating since 1994. The Sodankylä station was established in 1949, but there are records of continuous homogenized synoptic weather records from 1908 onwards from the site. Furthermore, the first thermo-/barometer based records are from 1856 and there was also temporary met station during the 1st IGY 1882/83. Since 1949 there has been permanent activities hosted by FMI. The facility now consist of multiple buildings altogether containing 1500 m2 space, with supporting mast field in the forest and swamp field, and multiple areal measurement camps. GENERAL RESEARCH AND DATABASES Pallas station consists of research station in Pallas fell. Surrounding national park may be used with restrictions. There are five measuring stations at the Pallas area: an automatic weather stations (AWS), Laukukero (68°04’N, 24°02’E, 765 m above sea level), and four stations measuring air composition. The main station, Sammaltunturi (67°58’N, 24°07’E, WMO index number 05821), is on a top of a fjeld (an Arctic hill), at the height of 565 m above sea level (a.s.l.), and ca. 300 m above the surrounding area. Matorova (68°00’N, 24°14’E) lies about six kilometres from Sammaltunturi at of 340 m a.s.l. Kenttärova station (67°59’N, 24°15’E, 347 m a.s.l.) is situated 1.4 km south of the Matorova station. It lies with spruce forest, and is used to measure greenhouse gas fluxes. The newest station, Lompolojänkä (68°00’N, 24°13’E, 269 m a.s.l.), is measuring green house gas fluxes in an aapa mire. The Laukukero and Sammaltunturi stations are within the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, inside the northern boreal forest zone. The Sodankylä facility hosts programs exploring upper-air chemistry and physics, atmospheric column measurements, snow/soil hydrology, biosphere-atmosphere interaction and satellite calibration-validation studies. Due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream the area is included in the boreal region. However, with regard to stratospheric meteorology, Sodankylä can be classified as an Arctic site, often lying beneath the middle or the edge of the stratospheric polar vortex and in the zone of polar stratospheric ozone depletion. Its strategic location, coupled with ready accessibility from all parts of the world, makes the Arctic Space Centre an excellent base for studying various themes of global change in a northern context. The Arctic Space Centre research sites belong to the Lapland Biosphere-Atmosphere Facility (LAP-BIAT), an infrastructure project through which the EU can fund visiting research groups. Sodankylä station consists of main research area within the station, equipped for atmospheric research. The tower field contains two research masts (48m and 30m) and three towers (5m, 8m and 24m), with supporting boreal forest ground measurements. The swamp area measurement field contain 5m tower and supporting ground measurements. HUMAN DIMENSION Nearest village Sodankylä in 7 km distance. Sodankylä has around 6000 habitants in the center and around 8500 habitants in the municipality. Main livelihoods contain military forces, mining industry, small industry, agriculture and reindeer farming and few research institutes. ACCESS Distance to nearest village (Sodankylä) 7 km, containing bus station. Distance to nearest airport and railway station (Rovaniemi) 130 km. Helicopter station is located in 4 km distance. Travel time from the airport typically less than 2 hours.