ATM Newsletter Special Anniversary Edition

ATM Newsletter
Division of Atmospheric Science
ATM Newsletter Nr.36. December 2016
Anniversary Special Edition 2014-2016
Dew Project:
clean water in arid areas
Juuso Tuure & Jonathan Duplissy
Marrakesh COP22
Tuukka Petäjä, p.9
Karsa Oy:
looking for talent
p.16 Indoor air quality in
traditional Kenyan
kitchens, childcare
facilities and beds
Brandon Boor, p.19
ATMNewsletter 1

Contents
SOCIAL IMPACT
4 Dew Project: Clean water in arid
areas
6 SMEAR goes GLOBAL
8 FCoE in 2015 Paris Climate
Conference COP21 - “success is a
must”
9 Update: Marrakesh COP22 by
Tuukka Petäjä
10 Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX)
Program: future prospects
RESEARCH
12 Is binary particle formation (and
the effect of ions on it) finally
understood?
14 Mining for nature’s data
17 Are boreal trees a source of
greenhouse gases?
18 Babies + carpet dust + VOCs
19 Update: Indoor air quality in
traditional Kenyan kitchens,
childcare facilities and beds
CAMPAIGNS
20 Field Notes: a campaign into the
Amazon!
21 Trekking to the Himalayas: a
Finland-India collaboration
22 Inside CERN: Hyytiälä in a chamber
and everyday life
23 Update note: CLOUD9 to CLOUD11
24 Letters from Antarctica
26 #ArandaSeaIce2016
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
27 Drones in research: learning the
basics
28 Jaana Bäck on Ecosystem Processes
group, sharing knowledge, scientific
jargon, and interdisciplinarity
30 Science in film: Timo Vesala at
Sodankylä film festival
32 Ozone Diaries: A graphic novel on
science by a scientist
34 10 year old diary: Värrio
ATM COMMUNITY
37 Celebrating 20 years: The Story of
SMEAR II in a song
38 Chatting with Hyytiälä station’s
Head Cook
39 Toasts, music and a farewell to Topi
40 Making the Front Page: a love of
photography
VACANCIES
16 KARSA Oy - Karsa is looking for
talent!
Editor-in-Chief Stephany B. Mazon
Cover photograph Ksenia Tabakova
Layout & Graphic design Stephany B. Mazon
Contents photograph Lauriane Quéléver
Contact stephay.mazon@helsinki.fi, Division of Atmospheric Science, University of Helsinki.
All works in this publication remain the copyright of the authors, and can only be reproduced with their explicit consent. Texts written
by ‘Editor’ are written by Stephany B. Mazon.
2 ATMNewsletter

Editor’s Note
The first ATM Newsletter was timidly sent
out to ATM emails on November 2014 to
test new waters for our Division’s internal
communication. On this, its 36th issue, the
ATM Newsletter is celebrating its 2nd year
with a Special Anniversary Edition. This
issue compiles a selection of articles that have
featured in the newsletter throughout its 2 years’
trajectory. You’ll notice ‘Update’ notes, where
authors are letting us know how their work has
progressed up till now, November 2016, since
their last contribution.
Thank you to all who have contributed. And
thank you to all who read it and have made this
process most worthwhile. Happy Reading!
ATMNewsletter 3

SOCIAL IMPACT
Dew Project:
Clean water in arid areas
The Dew Project is a collaborative project together
with Viikki Campus and VTT, with the aim to develop
a material that will emit IR radiation during noncloudy
days, cooling quicker than its surroundings,
and enable water to condense on it and be collected.
The plan is to develop the material, test it
here in Finland, and eventually take drinking
water to countries like Kenya, Jordan,
and India.
Want to know more? See article: Vuollekoski, H et
al: “Estimates of global dew collection potential” Hydrol.
Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 11, 9519-9549, 2014
ATM Newsletter #2. 25.November.2014
Dew collection on the rooftop of Kumpula Campus
Update:
Exactly two years ago, Stephany ask me to explain for
the ATM newsletter what the dew project on-going
on the roof of physicum building was about. At that
time, every morning my biggest fear was to find out
if these large dew collectors were still attached to the
roof or if they had been blown away. After successful
tests (read there: clear sky during the night), the dew
project went to its second phase, with data collection
in arid countries. The challenging part was to
organise this data collection while sitting in my cosy
office in Helsinki. We have designed and performed
measurements in Jordania (thanks to Tarek Hussein)
and in Kenya (thanks to Matti Räsänen, Juusi
Tuure and Mikko Hautala). While in Jordania
the measurements are over (until next funding is
approved) and the paper is under review, in Kenya
the measurements are still on going. We employ local
people to maintain the dew collectors and collect the
data. Surprisingly for us, in such a project the more
4 ATMNewsletter
Text: Juuso Tuure & Jonathan Duplissy
15.November.2016
you learn is from field measurements. Nothing goes
as it was foreseen from preliminary laboratory test.
Now the biggest fear is not only from the wind
potentially blowing off the dew collector, but rather
from unexpected elephants having too much
curiosity.”
But see bellow, about Juuso writing about his
experience installing the dew collectors in Kenya.
Mikko Hautala and myself visited Taita Research
Center of University of Helsinki located in Taita Hills,
Kenya during 9-22.Feb.2016. During the visit an
experimental field was established on a corn field at
Mwadime Mjomba’s farm in Maktau, located 50 km
(2 hour drive) from the research station. Mwadime
is working as a foreman at the Taita Research Center.
Setting up the measurement field was tough due
to the scorching heat, but we got great help from
Mwadime and his family. Measurements at the

Photograph by Mikko Hautala
experimental field have been running ever since the
visit and dew collection, soil and weather data is still
acquired continuously.
The set-up at the experimental field consists of 10
dew collectors with 4 different surface materials
(OPUR, PE and PVC plastics) and 4 different (PE,
PVC and Biodegradable) plastic mulches installed
on soil. Different parameters, such as surface
temperature and air relative humidity are measured
continuously in order to evaluate the correlation of
these different variables with collected amount of
dew. Soil moisture and temperature data are acquired
below the plastic mulches and also from the soil at
various locations, in different depth layers in order
to evaluate the expected impact of dew on soil water
balance. Continuously acquired weather data is
provided by a weather station at the experimental
field. Also other research work is done at the same
location i.e. Eddy covariance measurement related to
another research project run by UHEL, Department
of Atmospheric Sciences/Department of Geosciences
(Matti Räsänen). It benefits the dew measurement
project by providing evapotranspiration data, which
is useful for making accurate estimates on the impact
of dew on the local water balance. Also other forms
of co-operation are done regarding exchange of
measurement results, data analysis and maintenance
and calibration of the measurement devices at the
experimental field.
So far we have been able to harvest water in Kenya
by using the planned equipment and materials.
According to brief results, dew provides a small
but reliable source of water during the dry season
at the experimental field in Maktau. It is possible
to determine and simulate the periods of dew
condensations based on the measured parameters.
The measurement results obtained in both laboratory
and field conditions indicated small differences
between the different dew collecting materials. These
results indicate that the commercially available
materials tested (PE- and PVC-plastics) are workable
for dew collecting purposes.
This week a symposium was held in Helsinki to
report the results of the project. Finnish ministers
Jaana Husu-Kallio and Paul Silfverberg were present
and they were also presenting their view on the topic.
Want to know more? Contact Jonathan Duplissy ;
Juuso Tuure, Tarek Husein or Markku Kulmala.
ATMNewsletter 5

SOCIAL IMPACT
SMEAR goes GLOBAL
Text courtesy of CoE ATM / Mai Allo
Finnish atmospheric scientists are well-known for their special
observational stations. The SMEAR stations serve basic research, but
in the future, they will probably be a worldwide business as well
S nce 1991, the Station for
Measuring Earth Surface-
Atmosphere Relations
(SMEAR) observational
stations established by a team of
Finnish atmospheric scientists
have been measuring the
atmosphere and its interlinking
with the Earth’s surface. The
measurement data has been
the cornerstone of the scientific
contributions the team has
made to atmospheric physics
and chemistry. The researchers
of the team have, for example,
revealed the molecular
mechanisms governing the
formation of atmospheric
aerosol particles.
The team mentioned above is,
of course, the Finnish Centre
of Excellence in Atmospheric
Science.
There are altogether 250
physicists, forest scientists,
chemists and other experts
working in the centre. They are
headed by physics professor
Markku Kulmala, the most cited
geoscientist in the world.
Besides basic research, Kulmala
and his team have established
two spin-off companies:
Airmodus Ltd. develops and
manufactures particle counters,
and Karsa Ltd. produces special
sensors.
The success in academic
endeavour, or in small-scale
business, is not enough for
Kulmala and his team, however:
they now intend to enter
the world market with their
expertise in observational
technology.
“For example, we could plan
a whole measurement station
for the client on demand, offer
expertise to implement it, and
train the local staff to maintain
the station. Or we could
construct
early-warning technology
and apparatus for industrial
parks. We also provide data
management, processing and
visualisation tools,” says Marjut
Kaukolehto, the research coordinator
in the Finnish Centre
of Excellence in Atmospheric
Sciences.
Equipment and installation
One single SMEAR
measurement station consists
of numerous measurement
devices, vehicles, apparatuses
and data processing meaning
it is integrated to function as
a unit. A station is, in other
words, like a laboratory
located in a forest or any
other ecosystem. It can
even be erected in an urban
environment.
In addition to the technology,
maintenance halls, power
supply, and shelter for the staff
and visitors are usually needed.
Up to now, Kulmala and his
team have established six
stations.
”From the point of view of the
potential client, the complete,
fully equipped SMEAR station
might be too much. This is why
we have developed smaller,
separate blocks, which are
different combinations of
technology and knowledge
tailored for varying needs,” says
Kaukolehto.
Are the atmospheric scientists
now going to give up basic
research and turn to business?
No.
As Kaukolehto puts it:
“Academia and business,
6 ATMNewsletter

Photograph by Lauriane Quéléver
although both having their own rules and drivers,
can be brought closer to each other. By co-operating
they can solve air quality and climate problems, and
promote clean technology.”
The implementation of the SMEAR concept
described above is probably facilitated by the fact that
the SMEAR stations are already quite well-known
worldwide. Kulmala and his team have published
dozens of papers in Nature and Science, and most
of the breakthroughs rest upon SMEAR technology.
Many people in industry also know Airmodus Ltd.,
which exports its counters to China, amongst other
places.
The eventful and partly unbelievable history of the
SMEAR stations is much less known. They were
established partly as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear
catastrophe in the former Soviet Union in 1986.
“A blessing in disguise”
The exceptional story of SMEAR is revealed in
a book written by Mai Allo which will soon be
published by the Society of Finnish Literature. The
book is directed at the general public and explains
in a popular way what scientists do in the SMEAR
stations. It is also a fascinating success story of a few
exceptional individuals. Later, the book will probably
be translated into English.
“A blessing in disguise.” This is what physics
professor Markku Kulmala now says as he looks back
at the history of SMEAR. Kulmala was a physics
postgraduate and one of the very few young students
interested in atmosphere-ecosystem relations at
the end of the 1970s. With his senior colleague,
Pertti Hari, he started to apply the methods and
theories of physics and maths to forest research and
environmental issues. It was something unheard of in
those days.
But what, exactly, has the Chernobyl tragedy to do
with atmospheric scientists and their observational
stations?
“At the beginning of the 1980s, I started to cooperate
with Pertti Hari, who is both a physicist and
a forest scientist. With the help of an extraordinarily
talented blacksmith we succeeded in developing
instruments to measure, for example, the dynamics
of photosynthesis in a forest. But we were not
satisfied. We did not understand how our results
were connected to the atmosphere, nor did we
have enough data to draw conclusions,” remembers
Kulmala.
The problem of insufficient data was solved
unexpectedly as the research material they needed
literally fell from the sky. It can by no means be called
a Godsend, however. It was the radioactive fallout
from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine at
the end of April in 1986.
Radiating samples
Soon after the explosion, Kulmala and Hari were
working day and night for several months to collect
samples of polluted soil, animals and buildings to
be analysed with a gamma spectrometer. During
the hectic period it came to their minds where the
shortcomings of their earlier research were, and how
to fill the gaps.
Hari, now professor emeritus, explains: “We
understood that it was the energy and material flows
which combine the different parts of the ecosystem
and the atmosphere. By capturing the flows we
could create a coherent, quantitative model of the
biosphere as a whole. This is still the basic function
of any SMEAR station.”
He adds: “The analysis of ‘Chernobyl’s footprint’ also
served as a test bed to our instruments, which turned
out to be excellent for the measurement of very small
contents of, say, trace gases.”
The rest of the story is well-known: Hari, Kulmala
and a small group of other researchers established
their first SMEAR station in Värriö, northern
Finland, in 1991, and their second, in 1995, in
Hyytiälä in southwestern Finland.
They did not only plan the station, but also worked
physically in a construction plant, with a shovel in
their hand. The extraordinary blacksmith, Toivo
Pohja, offered his technical talent and craftsmanship
to serve the scientists.
Now there are four stations in Finland, one in
China and one in Estonia, and the SMEAR concept
provides services and products to the private sector,
too.
“It is sometimes argued that it is serendipity which
matters in science, but it is not true,” says Kulmala 30
years after Chernobyl.
“First, I really hope that a tragedy like that will never,
ever happen again. Second, I think any coincidence
in science is useless if a scientist is not prepared. He
must have been searching for something to see the
possibility behind coincidence.”
Contact:
Marjut.kaukolehto@helsinki.fi
Markku.kulmala@helsinki.fi
pertti.hari@helskinki.fi
www.atm.helsinki.fi/FCoE
ATMNewsletter 7

SOCIAL IMPACT
FCoE in 2015 Paris Climate
Conference COP21 -
“success is a must”
Text by Jaana Bäck
ATM Newsletter #22. 14.December.2015
As part of Nordic Council of
Ministers and the Ministry of
the Environment in Finland
delegations, Jaana Bäck and
Tuukka Petäjä participated in
the beginning of the UNFCCC Climate conference,
COP21. The extremely important event took place in
Nov 30 – Dec 11, 2015 in the Le Bourget Exhibition
Centre in Paris, where the world leaders and their
expert delegations work hard for two weeks, to
reach an agreement on how the climate change
could be at least slowed down and how the dramatic
consequences could be mitigated. In addition to
the main negotiations, a huge variety of side events
related to for example climate change research,
policy and cultural issues are organized as well. In
one of the side events, Jaana presented a selection of
the latest results of the Nordic Centers of Excellence
CRAICC and DEFROST in a session organized by
Nordforsk Top-level Research Initiative on Climate
Change. Tuukka introduced the SMEAR concept in
a side event about integrated global infrastructures
‘Trust but Verify’, organized together with ICOS
ERIC, Univ of Helsinki, Lund Univ and Univ of
Bergen. Both events were organized in the Nordic
Pavillion.
The atmosphere on the venue was excited and rather
optimistic on the two first days of the meeting. Due
to the recent terrorist attacks the safety measures
were really massive, and the venue was probably the
safest place in Europe. The official participants were
prepared for a hard work. The 195 countries had
prepared their opinions during endless meetings
already for several years, and now was the time
of final discussions, sharpening the messages and
compromising the critical issues. Nordic countries
were well visible and the Nordic Pavillion with
sheep fur -covered benches and beautiful forest
wall panels was attractive also to the safe guards
of the Turkish Pavillion located on the opposite
side of the passageway. The colorful and multicultural
participants surely give a good flavor to
the negotiations, and for example the neighboring
Pavillion of Peru was all the time entertaining the
passers-by with Native American music, dance
happenings and cheerful atmosphere.
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent
Fabius, who is the COP21 President, outlined in
his opening speech three conditions for success in
Paris: mobilizing heads of state and government;
bringing together and obtaining commitments from
nongovernmental actors; and reaching a universal,
ambitious climate agreement that is differentiated,
fair, lasting, dynamic, balanced, legally-binding and
ensures staying below 2°C. During the days we have
seen many steps towards an agreement, and at the
point of writing this we still have high hopes that
eventually the open questions are being resolved and
the leaders have maintained the high ambitions of
reaching even 1.5 °C level.
8 ATMNewsletter

Update:
Marrakesh COP22
17.November. 2016
Tuukka Petäjä took part on the COP22 meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, where he:
1. Participated in Sustainable Innovation Forum (SIF) together with Climate
Leadership Council. SIF is a side event of COP22
2. Was a panel member in two discussion panels (Topics: Promoting green
innovation; Innovative approach for real-time monitoring of air pollution).
This was organized by Morroccon Universities. He promoted our spin-off
activities (Airmodus, Karsa and globalSMEAR.)
3. Discussed with the local university representatives and funding organizations
about establishing an atmospheric observatory in Morocco. This is a joint work
with WMO-GAW, ACTRIS and globalSMEAR, University of Helsinki, CNRS,
etc and local partners.
ATMNewsletter 9

SOCIAL IMPACT
Pan-Eurasian Experiment
(PEEX) Program: future
prospects
Text by Hanna Lappalainen
We initiated the Pan-Eurasian Experiment
(PEEX) program (https://www.atm.helsinki.fi/
peex/) together with Finnish Meteorological
Institute, Moscow State University (MSU) and
AEROCOSMOS from Russia.in 2012. In 2013 the
PEEX collaboration was expand to China and the
Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth
(RADI) and University of Nanjing were invited
to join the PEEX program and open the regional
PEEX Offices in China. The goal was set to solve
with comprehensive, continuous observations the
scientific questions that are specifically important
for the Arctic-boreal region in the coming years,
in particular the global climate change and its
consequences to nature and the Northern societies.
Novel ground based land-atmosphere data would
also serve as bases for constructing reliable early
warning systems (floods, forest fires, droughts),
predicting extreme weather events and estimating
the environmental contamination of industrial
accidents
The initiative has grown fast and at the moment
it is involving research communities from 20
different countries from Europe, Russian and
China. Altogether 80 institutes have contributed
to the PEEX Science Plan, which identifies the
program at large, introduces the research agenda,
the components of the future PEEX research
infrastructure, the topics relevant for impact
making and outreach activities
“Altogether 80 institutes
have contributed to the
PEEX Science Plan”
10 ATMNewsletter

The program structure, concept and the research
agenda including the key topics for the first five years
are described in the PEEX Science Plan.
For implementing the PEEX research agenda
we have opened the PEEX Special issue in the
Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
(http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/
special_issue265.html). The special issue serves
as a primary platform collecting PEEX relevant
scientific results for the periodic PEEX science
assessment. The Assessment(s) will be distributed to
different stakeholders and policy making processes
such as Arctic Council, IPCC, Future Earth and
the European, Russian and Chinese ministries.
Furthermore, PEEX has been actively promoted to
the Russian science community and aspects of the
PEEX research infrastructure development in Russia
have introduced by PEEX has also been proposed to
the central government of China as one of the key
projects in Silk Road Economic Zone initiative.
“The Assessment(s) will
be distributed to different
stakeholders and policy making
processes such as Arctic Council,
IPCC, Future Earth and the
European, Russian and Chinese
ministries.”
The 1st PEEX Science Conference was held on 10-
12.Feb.2015 in Helsinki, Finland. The conference
gathered ca 150 participants from Europe, Russia
and China including plenary speakers such as
Director General Pavel Kabat, IIASA. PEEX has
also established collaboration with the European,
Russian, Chinese and global partners to maximize
the impact of the becoming research highlights,
scientific assessment and research infrastructure
development in the climate policy relevant processes.
The key partners and stakeholders here are IIASA,
International Eurasian Academy of Sciences (IEAS);
Digital Earth, Future Earth, Arctic Council (SAON),
WMO and GEO - GEOSS.
One of the concrete task of the PEEX is to establish
coordinated, coherent land based PEEX observation
network over Northern Eurasian region. The concept
of the hierarchical PEEX in situ station network is
based on know-how of the 20 year development of
the SMEAR-II flagship station measurement theory
and techniques. The backbone of the station network
is built on the existing biosphere (ecological) and
atmospheric observation networks in collaboration
with European, Russian, Chinese and global
partners. In practice this would mean the upgrading
and expanding the current measurement capacity
of the stations step by step with the new SMEARblocks
of instruments. The station upgrading and /
or establishing news stations would need national
investments of Russia and China.
PEEX continues expanding the stakeholder and
contact networks in 2017. Having new contacts with
the Northern American teams are one of the priority
areas. For example joint workshops on Arctic
measurements are to be organized in Hyytiälä in Feb,
6-9., 2017. The main event on 2017 will be the 3rd
PEEX Science Conference taking place in Moscow
on 19-21.September 2017. The conference is hosted
by Moscow State University.
ATMNewsletter 11

RESEARCH
ATM Newsletter Nr.29. 13.May.2016
Is binary particle formation
(and the effect of ions on it)
finally understood?
Text by Jonathan Duplissy
Merikanto et al. (2016) and Duplissy et al. (2016)
are two companion papers recently published in
JGR atmosphere. The papers investigate new particle
formation in neutral and ion-induced binary sulfuric
acid-water systems, a long thought mechanism
of particle formation. They are companionThe
companion paperss as there are tackleing this
particle formation system from a theoretical and
experimental approach, respectivelyes.
In Merikanto et al. (2016), the authors have derived
a new version of Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT)
in which they use a quantum chemistry-normalized
form of CNT and extend the theoretical treatment
into the kinetic regime where particle formation
is no longer impeded by a free energy barrier.
The model is validated against the measurements
presented in Duplissy et al. (2016), obtained from the
CLOUD experiment at CERN. In these experiments,
four parameters have been varied to cover neutral
and ion-induced binary particle formation processes
throughout the all atmosphere: Sulfuric acid
concentration (1e5 to 1e8 molecules per cm-3),
relative humidity (10%- to 80%), temperature (208-
293K) and ion concentration (0-4000 ions per cm-3).
The key instrument of this study is the use of the
APi-TOF-MS, which can differentiate clusters
produced by pure binary processes, i.e., containing
only sulfuric acid and water, from clusters also
containing other molecular species. Previous studies
on binary particle formation were executed with
care and purported to address binary nucleation;,
however, most were, to some extent, burdened with
ppt level contamination by base impurities like
ammonia and amines arising from various sources
of the experimental setup. These impurities were
shown to be able to enhance dramatically the particle
formation rates. This would explained why these
“thought to be” binary experiments have reported so
high particle formation rates. In this present study,
even though not all trace gas contaminations could
be detected directly in the gas phase, the APi-TOF-
MS is sufficiently sensitive to determine if additional
species are participating in the initial cluster
formation (albeit with the limitation that it can only
measure charged molecular clusters). The quality
data measurements from the APi-TOF-MS make it
possible for the first time possible to report a particle
formation rate data base labelled “contaminant free”
or “true binary” for a wild range of atmospheric
conditions.
Why are these papers important?
These They two papers provide, a) the most up to
date version of classical nucleation theory using
quantum calculation, b) -an extensive data base of
true binary nucleation, and c) a thorough description
of the CLOUD chamber. The authors show for the
first time a very good agreement between predicted
and measured particle formation rate (for hopefully
the good reason). This would end the persistent
mismatch between the theory and experimental
data, which hadve been causing big plenty scratching
of the head of from a generation of theorist and
experimentalist. As the theory agrees with the
data for the wild range of conditions studied, the
theoryit can therefore be used to generate a big
theoretical data set that can be parameterized. This
parameterization can then be used widely into
global modeling and improve our comprehension
of particle formation around the globe.
(Parameterization paper is about to be submitted).
12 ATMNewsletter

And outside of the office, what is the
implication for the atmosphere?
The authors’s results show for example that the
binary water-sulfuric acid system can produce strong
new particle formation in the free troposphere both
through barrier crossing (nucleation) and through
kinetic pathways. In the kinetic regime particle
formation rates become proportional to sulfuric acid
concentration to the second power in the neutral
system, or to the first power in the ion-induced
system. At cold stratospheric and upper free
tropospheric temperatures neutral formation
dominates the binary particle formation rates. At
mid-tropospheric temperatures the ion-induced
pathway becomes the dominant mechanism.
However, even the ion-induced binary mechanism
does not produce significant particle formation
in warm boundary layer conditions, as it requires
temperatures below or around ~0 ∘C to take place at
atmospheric conditions.
Furthermore, the authors show that binary formation
rates are very sensitive to relative humidity. The ioninduced
rates at 279K and sulfuric acid concentration
of 2x107 molecules per cc, for example, can be
effectively zero at 30% relative humidity, but take
place at close to ion pair production rate at 90%
relative humidity (Fig 2).
What’s next?
Well, so far binary nucleation has not been
observed in the real atmosphere, mainly because
measurements were done at ground level where
it is not expected to be observed (because of the
contaminants). So next would be to go to measure
new particle formation in the free troposphere and
stratosphere with an APi-TOF on board.
Figure 2: Dependence of ion-induced binary formation
rates on relative humidity
Figure 1. An illustration of CLOUD chamber at the CERN
PS. The de-focused pion beam exits a dipole magnet (right),
crosses the hodoscope counter (middle) and then traverses the
3m-diameter CLOUD chamber. Description of the CLOUD
chamber can be found in Duplissy et al (2016) and reference
therein. Briefly, the CLOUD chamber is a continuously stirred
tank reactor that can be exposed to a pion beam at intensities
covering the natural ion range concentration from ground
level to the stratosphere. Ultra-pure air supplying the chamber
is obtained from the evaporation of cryogenic liquid N2 and
liquid O2. Around the CLOUD chamber, a comprehensive suite
of instruments including state-of-the-art particle counters, size
spectrometers and mass spectrometers were used to detect the
forming particles and their precursors.
Figure 3: comparison between CLOUD data taken at 223 K,
50% RH and for neutral, GCR and GCR+beam (π)
Read the papers:
Duplissy, J., et al. (2016). J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 121,
doi:10.1002/2015JD023539.
Merikanto, J., et al. (2016). J. Geophys. Res. Atmos.
121, doi:10.1002/2015JD023538.
ATMNewsletter 13

RESEARCH
%
=
Mining for nature’s data
Text courtesy of CoE ATM / Heikki Junninen
There has been a lot of media hype surrounding Big Data, but the
use of powerful data mining tools requires profound theoretical
expertise -at least when it comes to natural sciences
Is it true that Big Data makes a revolution both in
business and science? In many respects, yes. The
phrase ‘Big Data’ most often refers to data building
up in social media or electronic registers. When
people buy, sell and pay using the internet, they
leave behind digital footprints that can be utilised
by various business-makers: social scientists say that
sorting the data from You Tube might be a method
of predicting riots, Google can follow movements
of flu epidemics based on the analysis of searched
keywords, and so on.
Nature never tweets
Natural scientists do, of course, utilise Big Data,
as well. But in fields like physics, chemistry or
atmospheric sciences, data mining is a more
complicated tool to use than in business or social
sciences.
One reason for this is that when it comes to Nature
- for example, the atmosphere - the data does not
flow into our computers by itself. The molecules of
the atmosphere do not gossip on Facebook, they do
not sign in to different registers, nor do they answer
polls. The same applies to practically all matters of
the physical universe.
The molecules of the atmosphere do
not gossip on Facebook, they do not
sign in to different registers, nor do
they answer polls.
To make Nature reveal something about itself, one
of the first things scientists have to do is construct
and install various items of equipment and apparatus
that can capture a physical phenomenon or certain
chemical reaction. The problem is that most often
there are no instruments to be used for novel basic
research - they have to be planned and designed by
the scientists themselves.
14 ATMNewsletter

What is even more, experiment settings cannot be
carried out randomly. The scientist always starts their
work by evaluating the existing theory: what are they
looking for and why?
First things first
Natural scientists do not even dream of data mining
before they have solid theoretical guidelines, installed
instruments in the field or in the laboratory, and
expertise to turn physical measurement signals, the
raw data, into analysable data.
This is exactly the way many atmospheric scientists
do their everyday work. Atmospheric sciences is an
‘umbrella field’ where physicists, chemists and forest
scientists co-operate. Some of them have special
skills in data mining, too.
Heikki Junninen, PhD, is a physicist working at the
University of Helsinki. He unravels the effects that
certain molecular processes have on cloud formation.
To find out how nanometre-sized particles in the
air behave and react with each other, he needs a
variety of special measurement apparatus, like mass
spectrometers.
“I am a data miner, yes, but the most timeconsuming
part of my work is the substance -
developing, installing and running our instruments
in the field to make the actual experiments succeed;’
emphasises Junninen.
When the data finally flows in and Junninen
can concentrate on analysing it, he uses factor
analysis, where algorithms search for correlations
and causalities of a huge amount of data. He may
sometimes also resort to so-called ‘self-organising
maps’, which are algorithms developed to classify the
samples.
“Both are very powerful tools in atmospheric
sciences, and they will be utilised even more in the
future. But they can also be dangerous: if the scientist
does not know the substance theory of his research
area, algorithms and data methods might turn out
to be a ‘black box’ and end up in totally wrong
conclusions.
“To put this a bit differently, data mining tools are
often statistical models that learn from data without
teaching the user about the data. This feature is a
disadvantage when one wants to learn the system or
phenomenon being modelled;’ adds Junninen.
“if the scientist does not know
the substance theory of his
research area, algorithms and
data methods might turn out to
be a ‘black box’”
Observations from SMEAR-stations
Although Nature is not revealing its secrets as easily
as we humans do, atmospheric scientists are lucky
to have a lot of data at their disposal. This happy
situation is owed to the excellent observational
stations established in Finland, Estonia and China.
The observational stations are large complexes of
laboratories located in both forest and urban areas
measuring the material and energy flows between the
atmosphere and the rest of the ecosystem. The first
SMEAR-stations have been producing long term data
since 1991.
At the moment, atmospheric scientists plan to
establish several new observational stations in the
area of the Nordic Cap.
Sounds like Big Data is growing ever bigger for
future analysts.
p T
2=
r
3
ATMNewsletter 15

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atmospheric research measurements, we have developed a prototype chemical explosives detector system.
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• BS or MS in Computer Science, Engineering or Mathematics or equivalent experience
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16

RESEARCH
ATM Newsletter #27. 07.April.2016
Are boreal trees a source of
greenhouse gases?
Text by Mari Pihlatie. Edited: Elisa Halmeenmäki
Pinus sylvestris as a missing source of nitrous oxide and
methane in boreal forest
The question whether boreal trees can emit methane
(CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) has been puzzling us
for some years. Generally, boreal forests are considered
as sinks and peatlands as sources of the strong
greenhouse gas CH4, while both of these ecosystems
are considered as small sources of N2O. Recently,
upland vegetation has been found to emit CH4 to
the atmosphere from a hitherto unknown process. If
also upland trees produce considerably CH4, forest
ecosystems could change from a sink to a source
of CH4. With these questions, we started intensive
field measurements at SMEAR II Scots pine (Pinus
sylvestris) forest in Hyytiälä. Here we present our
first results from measurements in 2013 showing that
mature Scots pine trees can emit both N2O and CH4
from both stems and shoots under field conditions.
We also demonstrate that Scots pine trees can considerably
contribute to the N2O
and CH4 exchange in an upland
forest ecosystem. These are our
first results from METAFOR
project funded by Emil Aaltonen
Foundation (2014–2016) and
ExpeER TNA. We continue the
work within Academy Research
Fellow project METATREE (Seasonality
in the production, transport and emissions
of CH4 from trees in boreal forest ecosystems) in order
to quantify the role of trees in the CH4 exchange
between forest and the atmosphere, to understand
processes behind the emissions or uptake, and to
identify environmental factors controlling the CH4
and N2O dynamics.
For more information: Mari Pihlatie, mari.pihlatie@
helsinki.fi, +358 50 4602748
Machacova, K. et al. Pinus sylvestris as a missing
source of nitrous oxide and methane
in boreal forest. Sci. Rep. 6, 23410; doi: 10.1038/
srep23410 (2016).
Figure S1. Schematic illustration
of N2O and CH4 fluxes in soiltree-atmosphere
continuum.”
(extracted from Supplementary
information)
ATMNewsletter 17

RESEARCH
ATM Newsletter #2. 25.November.2014
Babies + carpet dust +
VOCs
Text by Brandon Boor
Brandon Boor on the infant–aerosol experiment, his
work in Finland, and Europe–US scientific exchange.
My story in Finland began in fall 2011, when I
worked at the VTT Technical Research Centre
on infant exposure to VOC emissions from crib
mattresses. It was great experience, and I returned
last fall to Helsinki to work in Kaarle’s indoor aerosol
group. I just completed measurements looking at
how infants resuspend settled dust particles from
carpets as they crawl, using a mechanical robotic
crawling infant. This work was done in a large
environmental chamber at the Finnish Institute of
Occupational Health. I also visited Jordan over the
summer, to work with Tareq Hussein on mobile
aerosol measurements around Amman.
My office is in the Dynamicum. Fortunately, I have
received a few grants from the U.S. to fund my
research in Finland. Our indoor air group in Texas
has had visiting researchers from Finland, Denmark,
and Belgium, to help promote the cross-pollination
of ideas between Europe and US. I will likely wrap
up my dissertation next summer, and return to
Austin, Texas for my defense.
Here is a short video showing the increase in mass
concentrations as the robot (“infant”) begins to
crawl. (Video credit: Brandon Boor)
18 ATMNewsletter

Update: Indoor air quality in
traditional Kenyan kitchens,
childcare facilities, and beds
16.November.2016
CNN talks to Brandon on how to achieve a healthy bed!
“I am presently an Assistant Professor at Purdue
University in Indiana, where my students and I do
research on indoor aerosols and human exposure to
air pollution.
My group is working on a
project in western Kenya to
evaluate indoor air pollution
in traditional Kenyan kitchens
and new “clean” kitchens that
have been designed and built by
groups of women from the Nandi
community.
We are also studying the dynamics of bioaerosols
in a childcare facility, relating real-time bioaerosol
data to activity patterns of infants and children, and
using the Airmodus PSM/nCNC to measure sub-3
nm particles emitted from indoor sources, such as
gas stoves and household appliances. I also teach
courses on indoor air quality and architectural
engineering.”
Contact Brandon Boor at
e-mail: bboor@purdue.edu,
twitter: @brandonboor
Images & video from: www.brandonboor.com
ATMNewsletter 19

CAMPAIGNS
ATM Newsletter #1. November 2014
Field Notes: a campaign into
the Amazon!
Text & photograph by Daniela Wimmer.
Update 2016: Daniela is currently a grantee of the Autrian Science Fund. Her research is
in instrument development to study the growth and chemical composition of sub 3 nm
aerosol particles, by using a combination of a DMA and different ultrafince CPCs, with
different working liquids.
Project: GoAmazon2014/5 IOP2 (Green
ocean Amazon) the aim was to determine the
impact of the pollution plume from Manaus --the
nearest big city- on aerosol particles and the differences
between wet and dry seasons. I was especially
interested in new particle formation and I had an ion
spectrometer and an ultrafine CPC with me. Both
instruments can measure number size distributions
of aerosol particles smaller

CAMPAIGNS
Trekking to the Himalayas: a
Finland-India collaboration
Text by Arttu Jutila
Photographs by Niku Kivekäs
ATM Newsletter #18. 09.October.2015
The international expedition consisting of
researchers from the University of Helsinki (UH),
the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and The
Energy and Resources Institute in India (TERI)
investigated the effect of air pollution on melting of
the Sunderdhunga Glacier. The expedition set off
from Finland on September 12 and returned safe and
sound on September 30. The expedition was second
of three, and the last expedition is planned for 2016.
During the expedition the researchers of
FMI installed an automatic weather station
next to the glacier (4700 m asl) to collect
data year-round.
Also concentrations of particulate pollution were
measured along the way to the glacier and near the
glacier next to the weather station. On the glacier
more than 5000 m above sea level the team collected
snow samples, which will be used to quantify how
much particulate pollution is accumulated on the
glacier. The objective was to measure the properties
of the glacier surface layer and glacier dynamics.
Unfortunately, due to harsh conditions and
scheduling issues the amount of collected data was
limited. The data is nevertheless unique and it will be
analysed together with UH, FMI and TERI.
From Finland the expedition team flew to Delhi
and continued with a car to Mukteshwar (2100
m asl), where an air quality monitoring station
founded by FMI and TERI is situated. After the ongoing
reference measurements had been checked,
the team continued by car along twisty mountain
roads near the village of Khati (2200 m asl). The
journey to the Sunderdhunga Glacier continued on
foot with porters for approximately four days. The
trekking at high altitude was slow because the path
was rich in steep slopes which were slippery due to
rain. In places landslides had washed away the path
completely. The weather didn’t always favour the
expedition team: at base camp one tent eventually
collapsed due to wet snowfall during the night.
Usually the sun shined in the morning, which can be
seen from the stunning photos.
From the University of Helsinki, Division of
Atmospheric Sciences of the Department of Physics,
research assistant Arttu Jutila participated in the
expedition. The research project is funded by the
Academy of Finland.”
More information:
Professor Matti Leppäranta, matti.lepparanta@
helsinki.fi, 02941 51016
Research assistant Arttu Jutila, arttu.jutila@helsinki.
fi, 02941 51677
ATMNewsletter 21

CAMPAIGNS
ATM Newsletter #21. 27.November.2015
Inside CERN: Hyytiälä in a
chamber and everyday life
Text by Editor
The ‘shifters’ are waiting in room T11. It’s
6:50 a.m. as I cross the dark parking lot. I
can’t see them right now, but I know the
snowy peaks of the Alps are looming all
around me. I reach what looks like an old
warehouse with three separate doors, each
marked with the black and yellow radiation
warning. I choose the middle door, but it
won’t open. I fumble inside my coat to get
the dosimeter out and lean towards a little
machine. ‘Beep!’. A green light let’s me past
the sign that reads ‘Supervised controlled
area’.
CLOUD10 is the latest in a series of campaings taking
place inside CERN facilities. The original aim was to
study the involvement of galactic cosmic rays with
aerosols and clouds. This September, CLOUD10
prepared to simulate new particle formation under
Hyytiälä conditions. And before it comes to an
end, here is a sneak peak tour from inside CERN
CLOUD10 campaign.
Shifts
It’s a 24/7 campaign. From the control room, T11,
next door to the enclosure hosting chamber, you have
remote access to most instruments. A morning shift
starts at 07:00am, and you arrive some 10 min early
to let the eager-to-sleep night shifters update you on
the status of the experiment runs and what needs
to be done soon. You take over until 15:00 with a
shift partner, alternating for lunch hour. At 15:00 the
next pair will take care of running the experiment
and monitoring the multiple screens with graphs
of organics concentrations, trace gases, particle
concentrations, ambient conditions, laser intensity,
etc. A whiteboard lists the Runplan for the next several
hours
3 o’clock meetings
Everyday at 15:00 hrs we all gather in the meeting
room for a ‘shift run report’, where we cover from
updates of experiments, to presenting preliminary
results and discussing them. All members not present
have access via online streaming. I have to say despite
it can be a bit stressful to prepare a mini-presentation
everyday, this is a great moment to learn from others.
You are in a room with researchers from over 10
institutions, freely giving suggestions and questions
about the data.
Everyday life
While at CERN, you can live in one of the ‘hotel’
buildings (Fig.3). From my window I can see
reserachers discussing, walking head down going
over some unresolved problem, and going for jog.
The cafetaria is a rather fancy place, with buffet and
multiple menus to choose from during weekdays.
There are sections with ‘normal’ tables, and what
appears to be an annex with glass windows with a view
of the mountains. Rush hours get really busy, but in
between, you always find people here and there with a
coffee and their laptop.
CERN itself is a web of buildings, irregularly
numbered. Inside, it’s like a maze of long corridors,
one after another. You’ll pass open office doors, and
catch a French phrase here and there.
Before I leave CERN, I have to check my dosimeter
and see how much radiation I got. :) (Fig.6.)
22 ATMNewsletter

CAMPAIGNS
Update note:
CLOUD9 to CLOUD11
Text by Lubna Dada
16.November.2016
The CLOUD experiment carried out at CERN,
Geneva, brings about a collaboration between
new and experienced scientists, who come from
more than 20 institutes holding more than 30
different nationalities. The experimental stress
creates more bonds than just covalent or ionic, it is
more like lifetime friendships and multi-network
collaborations. Although it might be a bit tough
with 24-hour tracking of running
experiments,
we are still able to have fun regardless. From the T11,
to the cafeteria, to the 3 o’clock meeting room, to
kitchen 39 we are scattered, yet sometimes gathered
(Figure 1). Some call it home, others call it hell. In
one word, I would call it ‘Bittersweet’.
From the CLOUD family: “Happy 2nd Year
Anniversary”.
Figure 1. Picture that sums up the life of the
scientist at cloud. (credit: Lubna Dada)
ATMNewsletter 23

CAMPAIGNS
Letters from
Antarctica
2.12.2014 Aboa Research Station, Antarctica.
Greetings from Antarctica.
On Friday, 29th Nov., we started our journey toward Aboa research
station at Queen Maud land, Antarctica. After reasonably long flight
via Munich we arrived to Cape Town on Saturday morning. The next
day we went for a field trip to see penguins and the Cape of Good
Hope. We also saw several wild ostriches, baboons, and other weird
animals on the way there.
On Monday, we went for an obligatory flight briefing at ALCI
(Antarctic Logistic Center International) after which Tuija climbed
on the Table Mountain with a few other team members. Meanwhile,
Mikko focused on dining. In the evening we had the last dinner
including some fresh vegetables with generous ALCI people, the
weather was supposed to be fair for flying to Novo runway the next
day.
On Tuesday evening we were packed to Russian operated Iljushin IL-
76 cargo plane and headed south. We flew over night, and arrived on
Wednesday at 1:00 UTC in Novo Airbase, Antarctica. Light was so
unbelievable bright with the midnight sun reflecting from the infinite
glacier. At Novo, cargo was unloaded from Iljushin for the next flights
toward our final destination and we had an opportunity to sleep for an
hour or two. At 5:00, roughly half of our team including us two started
the next phase of our journey. This time we flew with Canadian pilotguys
in a Basler ski-plane, modified from over a 60 year old DC-3, to
the German research station Neumayer, since the plane would have
24 ATMNewsletter

needed to refuel anyway. However, the weather at Aboa, got bad, and
our pitstop was extended until Friday.
We used our time at Neumayer wisely by, for example, traveling 8
kilometers to the edge of the ice shelf on top of which Neymayer
station is standing. There we saw thousands of emperor penguins,
petrels, skuas, etc. Some penguins were also hanging around the
station, especially one chick was desperately trying to enter the station.
In the evenings we were playing pool and enjoying the good food,
well equipped bar (with free alcohol) and the hospitality of Germans.
Eventually, we were not very disappointed despite the unplanned
delay.
The sky got clear on Friday and we got a next Basler ride eventually to
glacier next to Aboa, a week after the departure from Finland. During
the day, two more Baslers flew the rest of our group and cargo here.
First day went in transporting cargo from “the airport” to the station,
cleaning up the snow, and making the station a proper place to live.
On Saturday we started unpacking our equipment and installations.
By Sunday we had more or less successfully installed NAIS, 2 PSM
systems, DMPS and APi-TOF. On Sunday afternoon, however, winds
started to blow. Hard. The next day we were recording average wind
speeds exceeding 34 m/s with maximum speeds reaching 42 m/s.
Snow was flying, visibility decreased to some twenty meters, it was
almost impossible to walk outside and even difficult to breath. Wind
has been blowing since then, making the station and especially our
measurement container to vibrate and swing like a ship. Today,
Tuesday 2nd Dec. average wind speeds have slightly decreased to 25-
30 m/s and are all the time getting calmer. Temperature outside stays
quite constant around -10oC. Maybe tomorrow we can continue
installations, and get the last instrument, CI-APi-TOF running. Maybe
tomorrow we can also get a first warm shower since last Wednesday.
So far so good, still sane
Mikko & Tuija
ATMNewsletter 25

CAMPAIGNS
#ArandaSeaIce2016
ATM Newsletter Nr.26. 22.March.2016
Text & photograph by Arttu Jutila
Student Arttu Jutila (Cryosphere Group) was invited
to join the FMI Sea Ice Cruise on r/v Aranda from 29
February to 10 March 2016, lead by Head of Group
(Polar Oceanography and Sea Ice) Eero Rinne, FMI.
Arttu represented University of Helsinki among a
total 29 researchers from 7 different countries and 11
different institutes. He gives us the research cruise “in
a nutshell”:
“Aim: to research sea ice, especially
ridged/hummocked ice, to improve
sea ice forecast and winter navigation
safety.”
“Methods: several ice stations in the Bay of Bothnia to
link measurements to data from satellites. Aranda is
equipped with numerous automatic instruments, such
as EM-31 measuring the height of the sea ice surface
and the thickness of sea ice with laser.
Additional aims: ship performance in different ice
conditions and water, quality in the Gulf of Finland, in
the Archipelago Sea, and in the Bothnian Sea.”
Have you seen the drilling of an ice core? Below, FMI shares some spectacular
footage of R/V Aranda fellow scientist at work. Click to watch FMI video (credit:
Tuomo Roine).
26 ATMNewsletter

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Drones in research:
learning the basics
Text by Anna Nikandrova
Photograph taken by Phantom3 drone during the course
Laboratories, measurement stations, planes,
Zeppelin, satellites....we are using all these platforms
for our research. Is there anything missing? The
answer is yes. With the recent developments and
decrease in costs, Remotely Piloted Aircraft System
(RPAS), aka drones, became an accessible and
reliable option. A three day short and intensive
course about potential use of drones for the research
purposes was offered by a small group of the
University of Helsinki, that has already started to
utilize them in their studies and got some experience
to share. The course was held in Lammi Biological
Station, which is quite similar to Hyytiälä, and has
very good facilities for working. Participants were
divided in three groups, and during the first day my
group learnt all the basics about drones and how to
pilot them (Phantom drones). The most important
is, of course, constantly keep an eye on a battery and
bring the drone back home in time. One battery
lasts for 15-20 minutes. Even though they can be
charged very fast nowadays, you would always want
to have several extra with you in the field. Our task
for the second day was a 3D mapping of a small area
over the station. Several applications exists for this
task, and all of them automatic, of course, because
it’s near to impossible to keep a drone at constant
speed and height manually. To get precise location
we place black and white squares on the ground and
got their coordinates with GPS, and later we located
them on our maps. Our 3D maps included many
different objects: houses, trees, cars, people and small
meteorological station. It was interesting to see which
features were displayed properly and which had
some problems, like a missing house roof or a half
of a tree. We made several tests with different flight
and camera settings to find out what affects the map
quality the most. The next day we were working with
the data from the infrared camera. Unfortunately, the
weather (which is a crucial factor for a possibility to
use our drones) was not so good, so we did not do
flights ourselves. We worked with already existing
data and learned some applications, one of them is a
possibility to detect and monitor groundwater.
Future plans of the course participants were: to
monitor wildlife in Tanzania, to measure temperature
gradient with height in the urban environment,
to use drone with lidar for better imaging of trees
shapes, etc. May be soon we will also see a drone
with a light CPC in Hyytiälä?!
ATMNewsletter 27

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
ATM Newsletter #8. 11th March 2015
Jaana Bäck on Ecosystem
Processes group, sharing
knowledge, scientific jargon,
and interdisciplinarity
Interview by Editor
“They are very much
linked”, says Jaana Bäck. She is describing
the atmosphere–land processes, the effects of
composition, the recycling of chemistry in this
system. “This is the strength of our joint programs”,
she adds. To combine the Earth’s spheres in an
inclusive, holistic research team.
The Ecosystem Processes group began in the 1980s,
with the purpose to investigate the processes
influencing energy, carbon, water and nitrogen
fluxes. The aims have not changed, but methods
and instrumentations have advanced. Led by Pertti
Hari and his work on tree photosynthesis, a station
dedicated to the observation of ecosystem processes
was established in 1994, SMEAR II. The first, original
cottage can be seen to this day. It was there that the
first photosynthesis measurements were taken, and
SMEAR II continuous data began.
The Ecosystem Processes group has since expanded.
For the last 10 years it has grown to include
researchers from various fields including biologists,
environmentalists, limnologists, and physicists.
Concentrated in Viikki Campus, it currently
comprises 10 senior scientists and post-docs,
together with 18 PhD students.
Speaking the same language: “Terminology
should be interdisciplinary”
The ATM groups with immediate connection to the
Ecosystem Processes group are Micrometeorology
and Mass Spectrometry groups, in their work with
VOCs. The Soil group has a direct overlap, and
physically they are situated in Kumpula and Viikki
campuses.
How hard is it to communicate within different
fields? and between two campuses? “It’s a learning
process all the time”, answers Jaana. We have been
28 ATMNewsletter

uilding a common platform for 20 years” that has
developed from sharing measurements, data, and
complimentary research.
“It is not easy to have two campuses and keep
updated on the goings-on within each research
group, but there are steps being taken towards
this, such as promoting seminars like the CoE
Science Forum, recreational activities, etc. There
are joint courses organized between Viikki and the
Micrometeorology and Mass Spec. groups that also
aim to link the campuses and research. “Everything is
linked”, explains Jaana, but she emphasizes the need
to find an efficient way to work with- and make the
most out of that link between our groups.
“We have been building a
common platform for 20
years” that has developed
from sharing measurements,
data, and complimentary
research.
“Terminology should be clear”, she adds when
referring to how we communicate our own research
across groups. It won’t do to assume others will
understand terms or acronyms during seminars, so
one step to take is to remove the “scientific jargon
when you talk about what you do....Terminology
should be interdisciplinary”, she concludes.
International collaborations? Yes,
significant ones.
Outside the network of University of Helsinki,
the group has formed several collaborations with
foreign institutions, such as a project measuring the
spectrum of light sensing in plants, together with the
European Space Agency, University of Barcelona,
and University of Edinburgh. Volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) production is also jointly
researched with University of Tartu and University
of Barcelona. There is a geographical restriction in
measuring ecosystems in the boreal zone, of course,
in contrast to aerosol measurements which can be
done in any location of the world, points out Jaana
with a smile.
“Terminology should be
interdisciplinary”, she
concludes.
A woman in science.
“This community is pretty open and balanced” in
terms of gender, replies Jaana when asked about
being a woman in her leadership position. She adds
we must recognize that a large fraction of females do
not progress to leading positions, but that there are
several factors at play in this, and acknowledges the
role and work from female colleagues, like Hanna
Vehkamäki in her mathematically focused group, in
dissipating this issue from our network.
An invitation.
Jaana reiterates the importance of sharing
knowledge, and the growth that comes as a result.
This seems to be the underlying theme she conveys
during our conversation: the opportunity of what we
have from the mere fact that we are such a large and
diverse group under a common umbrella, that we
could take on a multilayered environment and study
it under multidisciplinary scientific lenses, but that
we are only as strong as our ability –and our interest–
to communicate in a common language.
To end in a high tone, we are all cordially invited to
attend the Wine & Science Seminars, a space where
we can present and discuss any topic (including
preliminary results, or even proposal drafts) along
with a sip of wine and bite to eat.
ATMNewsletter 29

Science in film:
Timo Vesala at
Sodankylä film
festival
ATM Newsletter Nr.32. 17.August.2016
Interview by Editor
Photographs by Santeri Happonen
At this year’s PEEX Science conference in Beijing, Timo Vesala had a
different oral talk. The lights went out and movie clips started rolling.
“From Vertigo to Blue Velvet: Associations on film and climate
change (Punaisesta kyyneleestä Sinisempään yöhön)” covered from
Hitchcock and Lynch, to Russian classics, to modern American tv
series: From dialogues directly referencing climate change, to a quiet
scene of an actor pondering over his own hand against the sunlight
and suspended dust to talk about ‘aerosols’. But this wasn’t the first
nor the last time Timo would present his interdisciplinary talk.
What started this interdisciplinary talk?
The Science Corner of University of Helsinki organizes a series of
popular talks open to the public. When Timo was invited to give a
talk, he had science slides ready but wanted something new. And so,
movies and science it was.
30 ATMNewsletter

Timo at the Sodankylä Film Festival 2016
It was the first time a talk like this was organized,
thanks to head of Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory
Esa Turunen and the Film Festival organizers who
wanted to discuss science fiction and space research
in a science seminar. Turunen was joined by Timo,
space physicist Sini Merikallio from FMI and contemporary
culture researcher Aino-Kaisa Koistinen
from Univ. Jyväskylä in a panel of 4 at the Town Hall
as part of the festival’s official program.
Old and young, locals and visitors crowded the audience.
The feedback was positive. People are aware of
climate change issues and those specific to Lapland,
reports Timo. They are happy to hear it straight from
the scientists. “We could do more talks for the general
public. We don’t do enough”, Timo reflects, but
an issue to address is how to broaden the group of
scientists that would be invited to such events.
And just how accurate is the science in movies?
Big budget science fiction movies can hire scientific
advisors. Even the old 50s, 60s films, maybe look
old fashioned now, but quite a lot of them utilized
experts and reflect the knowledge of that time, Timo
explains.
How about Sodankylä 2017?
As a visitor, yes, Timo confirms. The talk is not set
yet. But emails have been exchanged. On Timo’s
train ride back to Helsinki, Finnish film director and
visual artist Mika Taanila discussed a plan to address
the topic of nuclear power next, to which Timo coincidentally
had already put some thought. “Different
ways to make energy”, Timo explains. “I have 10 films
already listed”. Ecosystems, windmills, damns, “what
if I collect this and talk about energy production”.
Timo is nonetheless ambivalent as it is not his field of
expertise, but maybe the train meeting was a sign he
should go for it.
Other Film festivals?
Last November Timo took the stage of the
Dubrovnik in Helsinki’s film festival “Lens Politica”.
The venue serves as a restaurant-bar, so even if you
went for a beer, you could find yourself at a sciencein-film
talk.
Timo emanates knowledge and appreciation for both
science and film. So I think it can work both ways.
Not only does his talk expose the general public to
science, but it takes us scientists out of our comfort
zone and invites us to do the same with art. And by
doing so, we become multilingual, and communication
becomes more effective.
ATMNewsletter 31

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Tero and Pentti interviewed at Kirjasto 10 during the Helsinki Comics Festival. Photograph by Joonas Kohonen
Ozone Diaries: A graphic novel
on science by a scientist
Text by Tero Mielonen
How was Ozone diaries born?
I’ve noticed that a lot of people are interested in
science but they don’t know what it is like to work in
science. There are lot of books and comics about the
really famous scientist but they don’t usually describe
how the actual work is done. So, I thought this topic
is something that hasn’t been covered yet but might
be interesting for the readers. I combined these work
related things with perceptions of working abroad
and mixed in some travelling to make the story more
interesting for a wider public.
I got the idea for the book in 2012 and I contacted
Pentti Otsamo, who is a professional illustrator, and
asked if he would be interested in illustrating the
book. I’m a big fan of Pentti’s work so I was really
happy when he replied yes. Then we wrote a few
funding proposals and were lucky enough to get
funded. We started to work on the book in 2013 and
at the end 2015 book was almost finished. Then we
contacted Ursa and they promised to publish it.
32 ATMNewsletter
ATM Newsletter Nr.34. 06.Oct.2016
How was the process to plan and sketch the
story?
In practice, I wrote the story three times. First, I
wrote the dialogue for a chapter and then I sketched
the chapter with stick figures to see how the text fit
to each panel and how many panels go to each page.
Based on the sketch I would then write the official
script where I described how many panels are on
each page, what happens in each panel and what the
characters say/think. When I emailed the script to
Pentti, I would also include some reference pictures
to make life a little bit easier for him. Occasionally
Pentti would inform me that he had to make some
changes to the panels or that I would have to shorten
some dialogue because it wouldn’t fit on the panel.
So we were communicating at all stages during the
project. And when I saw the final pages they were
always looking better than I had hoped for. I was
really lucky to able to do this project with a seasoned
professional because he had a lot of good ideas how
to improve the story and make it more fluent. Also,
the people at Ursa helped a lot with the polishing of
the text.

Structuring the book: ‘flowchart’ or creative
instinctual process?
As a first step in the project I made a table of contents
for the book which means that I just listed
all the things I wanted include in the book. Then I
divided the things into different chapters and I had
a skeleton for the story. We made the book chapter
by chapter following the skeleton but there were also
some deviations. For example, we even decided to
add one additional chapter quite late in the process.
Audio material to go with the novel?
The only downside in comics is that they don’t
include sound. So, I thought that it would be fun to
make a soundtrack for the book. The idea is simply
that all the songs on the list are somehow linked
to the chapters of the book. Either the songs are
mentioned in the chapter or the artists come from
the same country where the chapter is located or
the themes are similar and so on. We just thought
that the soundtrack would bring a nice new
dimension to the story.
How do you think art can help in
science communication?
Science is typically thought to be
complicated, serious and boring. Art is more
relaxed, easier to approach and entertaining.
That’s why art is an excellent way to make
science more accessible. Usually, people don’t
want to understand everything, they just
want to know what is the main message and
art can be used to convey scientific messages
effectively. It is easier to remember a nice
picture or some lyrics than what some shabby
scientist said in the news.
I know quite many scientists who do art as
a hobby. They make music, illustrations or
write texts but I don’t know if they use their
hobbies to disseminate scientific information.
Probably not, because usually people have
hobbies so that they don’t have to think about
work related things all the time. Anyway, I
wouldn’t mind if there would be, for example,
scientific rock on the radio or if movie physics
would be realistic.
Where can we get a copy?
The book can be ordered directly from
Ursa (https://www.ursa.fi/kauppa/tuote/
otsonipaivakirjat/) or from other web
bookshops. In Helsinki, it’s available at
least from the excellent comic book shops
Kulkukatin poika and SS Libricon, and
Rosebud bookshop.
And have you presented it at a book
presentation anywhere?
There have been a couple of events where we have
presented the book to general public. For example,
last month we gave a presentation about scientific
graphic novels at the Kuopio Library and we were
interviewed at the Helsinki Comics Festival. There
have been a couple of interviews on the radio and for
a newspaper. On September 30th we participated in
the Researchers Night in Kuopio where we hosted
a comic strip workshop and afterwards we were
interviewed in a talk show as part of the program.
In the workshop people could come and make their
own comic strips.
Check out Ozone Diaries (Otsonipäiväkirjat)
Facebook or Ursa publishing for more info!
ATMNewsletter 33

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
ATM Newsletter #5, 28.January.2015
10 year old diary: Värrio
Text by Editor based on correspondance with Prof. Veli-Pohjonen
Värriön luontopäiväkirja - Värrio Nature Diary
“Sunday, August 07, 2005
Värriön tutkimusasema heräsi elokuisen
sunnuntain aamuna sankkaan
aamusumuun. Sääasema näytti ilman
suhteelliseksi kosteudeksi 99 prosenttia ja
lämpötilaksi 8.1 astetta. Aamusumu on
yhteydessä edelliseen päivän havaintoon:
koko lauantain ilma oli ajoittaisesta
auringonpaisteesta ja kohtalaisesta tuulesta
huolimatta niin kosteaa, että niin outamaan
kuin tunturinkin varvikko pisaroi vettä koko
päivän - kastellen kulkijan maastokengät
litimäriksi.”
Värriö station woke up in the morning of August Sunday [2005] in the middle of thick morning fog. The climate
station showed figures for relative humidity and temperature 99 per cent and 8.1 degrees, respectively. The
morning fog is related to the moist weather of the previous day. Despite of sunshine and moderate wind, the
highland air was so moist that the grasses and herbs of forests and fells kept wet the whole day - wetting also the
shoes of the hiker.” // posted by Veli Pohjonen @ 09:05
34 ATMNewsletter
Photograph by Veli Pohjonen

It was coincidental that I was
introduced to this site, a blog
began by the former Director
Professor Veli Pohjonen and
Teuvo Hietajärvi of Värrio
Research Station (SMEAR I).
It is an archive of Värrio’s flora
and fauna captioned (frequently
enough in English too) with a
description of the biology or
ambient conditions; Sometimes
meteorological parameters are
reported, sometimes they become
a poem.
When I asked Prof. Pohjonen
what the initial purpose of the
Diary was, he explained: “The
Varrio Nature Diary was made
to be a diary, to report daily
about the nature of the special
Strict Nature Conservation
Area. Because Varrio is a strict
conservation area (you can not
enter the area without proper
permit) we also wanted to show to
local and other people what really
is inside the area and what we are
doing.”
It is beautiful. It archives the
earliest photographs from July
2005, the latest, 2 weeks ago
(January 2015). It also isn’t
a secret. The blog boasts 1.2
million views during its 10 years
of presence. Already during its
beggining in 2005, it received over
2500 unique views; This year, it
has almost reached 5000. In the
years 2011-2012, its total page
views surpassed 200,000.
“Originally the idea was that the
summer students would have
written more to the diary, but
the blogspot is not any more so
popular. Apparently if we would
start the diary today, it would be
opened as a Facebook site”, Prof.
Pohjonen jokes.
The website is a virtual nature
trail that reminds those of us who
might be working with Värrio
Research Station data not only of
its source, but the real, tangible
reason of our work.
varrio.blogspot.fi
“Because Varrio is a strict conservation area
(you can not enter the area without proper
permit) we also wanted to show to local and
other people what really is inside the area and
what we are doing.”
“Friday, July 22, 2005
A few hundred meters north-west from the station, in the foothills of Kotovaara, is a deep (small) canyon,
the Devil´s canyon. At the bottom of the canyon there is a pond and a small creek flows away from the pond,
towards north, finally joining the Ylinuortti river. [...] These canyon, their bottoms, shores of the ponds and the
riverines of the creeks have their own flora, different from other forest and mountain flora of Varrio.”
// posted by Veli Pohjonen @ 06:10
ATMNewsletter 35

Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Pakkaspäivän laskenta / Snow line of frosty day (Teuvo Hietajärvi)
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Pakkaspäivän tarinat / The stories of frosty day (Teuvo Hietajärvi)
36 ATMNewsletter

ATM COMMUNITY
Celebrating 20 years: The
Story of SMEAR II in a song
ATM Newsletter #15. 20.August.2015
“The celebration of SMEAR II 20th anniversary took place in Hyytiälä on August 13th and saw the
participation of ~140 people. We learned about the past, present and future of SMEAR II, our cooperation
with Nanjing University and the connection between tea, trees and clouds. Other highly exciting activities
included boreal dinner by the lake, sauna and kota. Here’s to another 20 years of successful measurements at
SMEAR II” Text by: Misha Paramonov
We raise a glass of bubbly in honor of SMEAR II, and a vision towards a global network, and
share with you the SMEAR Song!
SMEARin Tarina (G-duurissa)
sanat: Jyri Makkonen 7.8.2015
sävel: Ewan MacColl (1949)
© Jyri Makkonen 2015
1. Vielä muistan sen, ajan muinaisen.
Kaasut mitattiin, kaljaa kitattiin.
Tsernobyl sen kai, onneks aikaan sai.
ajan muutoksen, vielä teemme sen!
2. Iiro Viinanen, Susi-Pulliainen,
rahat aikaan sai, SMEARin sunnuntai!
Polku kuoppainen, uuden leveyden,
askelmerkit näin – menestystä päin.
3. Uutta luomalla, tieteen tuomalla,
fotosynteesiin, aerosoleihiin.
Pepe mallinsi, Topi rakensi.
Markun mukana, vahva fysiikka.
4. Pienen hiukkasen, kuka löysi sen?
Klustereista hain, neutraaleita vain.
Partikkelia – artikkelia,
täynnä on työ tää, loppua ei nää.
5. Muutos ilmaston, liian totta on!
Maailma pelastuu, näinhän käy – eiks juu?
Kunhan lisää vaan, resursseja saan.
Neljään miljardiin, tyytyisimme niin.
Ref. Neljään miljardiin… (lausutaan selvästi): ja sitten olisi koossa
globaali SMEAR-mittausverkosto
”…tyytyisimme niin…” C – G – C-G
ATMNewsletter 37

ATM Newsletter #28. 28.April.2016
Chatting with Hyytiälä
station’s Head Cook
Interpreter Katrianne Lehtipalo, Text by Editor
Photograph by Lubna Dada
One of the highlights from every Winter and Fall
School in Hyytiälä are the meal breaks. Everyone new
to the course is surprised to hear they will be eating
approximately every 2 hours, and aplently. Just a
couple of days into the work-intensive week and you
start to feel a drowsy state between sitting in front
of a matlab code, and shuffling your feet a couple of
meters to sit in front a plate of food, or -my favouritea
home made sweet pastry and yet another cup of
coffee.
And it is some special ladies behind the cafeteria
counter that are making our work smoother and
more enjoyable. We had a chance to sit down with
Head Cook of Hyytiälä SMEAR station. Jaana
Aronen.
When did you start working in SMEAR II?
“25 years ago, this June 2016”. Jaana was finishing
high-school when she heard of a position in the
Hyytiälä kitchen and applied for the job. It is a 42 km
journey from her home in Mämttä to work.
How has it changed in the past 25 years?
At the beginning it was only for University of
Helsinki use, Jaana explains. But then it got bigger,
and now it open to public events, like weddings! The
infrastucture remains the same.
What goes on inside the kitchen...
The kitchen currently staffs 2.5 cooks in the weekdays
and weekends, and 5 during the busy summer
months. The menus are decided by them: they plan a
weekly variation of meats like fish, beef and chicken,
and build the menu around that. They try to vary
it, but there are considerations to take into account
depending on the group they are catering for. Special
dietary needs can mean a person can only eat from a
specific list of ingredients.
Unless there is a tight time constraint, they bake
from scratch themselves. Those yummy warm
morning breads, or coffee treats.
As to the special occasions, Jaana’s favorites are the
outdoor nature events, like the Boreal Dinners, or
inside the Old Dinning Hall.
What does she think of us, ‘the scientists’?
Not a big difference, it is only more hectic during
Hyytiälä courses because of the meal times and
number of people. So we aren’t the only ones doing
long hours there...
To the entire kitchen
staff, thank you for the
care you put into our
food and all the pastries!
And if you want to get
married in Hyytiälä,
remember, Jaana and
her team can take
care of the dinning
arrangements all the
way to the cake.
38 ATMNewsletter

ATM COMMUNITY
ATM Newsletter #1. November 2014
Toasts, music and a
farewell to Topi
Toivo Pohja (Topi) retirement party
This weekend marked Topi’s retirement party in
Hyytiälä forestry station after a career of almost 40
years. The Old Dinning Hall was the venue where
colleagues celebrated Topi’s work and friendship.
Speeches warmed the room, good music, memories
and photos of the past 40 yrs. It is evident that
Topi will remain a prominent figure in the history of
SMEAR II station. All the best to a new chapter in
Topi’s life!
“Topi is a true multi-talent, and music is one of his
passions. For the joy of themselves and the audience,
Hyytiälän Pelimannit was playing Finnish folk music
in his retirement party. Topi is one of the original
members of Hyytiälän pelimannit from 1977.”
Quote & photograph by Janne FJ Korhonen
ATMNewsletter 39

ATM COMMUNITY
ATM Newsletter #25. 26.February.2016
Making the Front Page:
a love of photography
Text and photography by Ksenia Tabakova
Faust J. A., et al. (2016) Real-Time Detection of Arsenic
Cations from Ambient Air in Boreal Forest and
Lake Environments. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett., 2016,
3(2), 42–46.
This month’s issue of Environmental Science and
Technology Letters has a very familiar scene on its
front page: Hyytiälä.
The featured article by Jennifer Faust et al. presents
-for the very first time- observations of ambient air
arsenic ions detected with an API-ToF (atmosphericpressure
interface time-of-flight mass spectrometry)
in Hyytiälä Station, including above the beautiful
Kuivajärvi lake, a photo of which now serves as the
journal’s front page. And it is our own PhD student
Ksenia Atlaskina who is the woman behind the
camera.
I took the photo in Hyytiälä back in Autumn 2012
during the data analysis course which Jennifer Faust
also attended as a student. When the manuscript was
accepted for publication, Jennifer selected this image
to represent the content of the paper.
I have been doing photography since 2012. What
started as a ”point-and-click” activity gradually
transformed into a passion. Urban environment
inspires me most of all, because one can find many
interesting or weird places and objects in the city. It
is also full of lines, shades, shadows and combination
of them of different complexity. Such kind of space
allows to be dynamic and spontaneous, which is very
much my personality.
I like to shoot in black and white, and most of the
works published on my website are done with simple
50 mm lense. I have also fancier equipment, but
I believe that restrictions help to built vision and
improve composition. When you visit my web-site,
I recommend to look first through galleries Urban,
Weird, Textures and Things because these portfolios
are the most representative of me.”
Visit Ksenia’s photography website here: Visionista
40 ATMNewsletter

Photograph by Ksenia Tabakova
ATMNewsletter 41

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42 ATMNewsletter