Stockholm university

Atmosphere and Weather

The atmosphere - from weather forecasting to climate change.

How does the atmosphere affect the climate and life on Earth? Research in atmospheric science examines everything from local weather phenomena to global climate change. By understanding atmospheric processes, we can predict future climate and develop sustainable solutions.

Arktis. Foto: Paul Zieger

News

Linus Magnusson.
Department of Meteorology

Linus Magnusson, ECMWF, Adjunct Professor at MISU

Linus Magnusson from ECMWF, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, is appointed Adjunct Professor at MISU on 10 percent, from 1 September. He will e.g. supervise Master degree projects, do Arctic research related to forecast evaluation and model/observation improvements, support planning and forecasting during Arctic campaigns, and some preparation of course material.

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The Faculty of Science announces 10 PhD positions

As a PhD student at Stockholm University, you will have the opportunity to deepen your knowledge in a subject area, ask important questions, and contribute to new knowledge. 10 PhD positions are now available in science.

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The 21 students in the research school gathered on helicopter deck.
Department of Meteorology

The expedition Arctic Ocean 2025, blog post 7: A last hello and goodbye

The research school onboard the research ice breaker Oden has come to an end. In the evening the day before yesterday we did our last research station and deployed a mooring in the marginal ice zone, where the pack ice meets in the open ocean; a permanent buoy under the the surface that is tethered to the ocean floor and will stay there for the next years. 

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Oskar Klein Centre

AI for Science symposium bridges academia and industry

In September, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences hosted AI for Science in Beijer Hall, co-organized with the new EDUCATE Centre of Excellence. The two-day meeting brought together researchers and technology leaders to compare strategies for using AI across disciplines—from cosmology and particle physics to fusion, materials discovery and weather forecasting.

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Polar bear mother and a 2nd year cub walking, surrounded by ice and snow.
Department of Meteorology

The expedition Arctic Ocean 2025, blog post 6: Polar bears, multi-beam sonar and examination

During this week it has become clear that we moved into the autumn freeze up. There is almost no open water around us at all anymore. Where open water was present previously, between the more solid ice floes, the ocean is now covered with a layer of new ice.

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Helicopter landing on deck.
Department of Meteorology

The expedition Arctic Ocean 2025, blog post 5: We are alone now, it's colder and new ice is forming

Four weeks have now passed and there is less than two weeks left of our Arctic adventure. One can sense that people on board have started to realize this and react differently. Some refuse to think about it while others think about it all the time. This is human nature and the mood onboard is very good but it will be a special moment when we get back. 

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A man in lifewest, safety belt and helmet holding the sediment core.
Department of Meteorology

The expedition Arctic Ocean 2025, post 4: Sediment samples – climate archive millions of years old

Over three weeks have gone for this years Oden expedition to the central Arctic Ocean and we have passed the midpoint with less time left than spent. We have managed to take some more sediment samples; the several meters deep samples represents a climate archive that may go millions of years back in time. Also a rare spotting of the sun, this time with two so-called "sundogs".

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

New study: Coastal waves create more aerosols than expected – may affect climate and air quality

A new discovery about how sea spray forms on coastlines may change our understanding of the oceans’ impact on climate. In coastal areas, aerosol concentrations have been greatly underestimated — but globally, they may have been overestimated. The findings, from a study that included a researcher at Stockholm University, could also affect air quality in coastal cities. And it all began during a car journey on a windless day in the Azores.

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Arctic sun, clouds and ice.
Department of Meteorology

The expedition Arctic Ocean 2025, blog post 3: Summer Arctic, stubborn cyclone and sediment cores

A little over a week has passed since the Research school on icebreaker Oden passed the North Pole and we are now relatively far south but on the other side of the pole which has some weird consequences. While the sun doesn't set, it does vary over the day. Since we are still on UTC time (sometimes called Greenwich Mean Time) this means that where we are now, the sun is the lowest in the middle of our day and vice versa.

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People playing on the ice, with icebreaker Oden in the vackground.
Department of Meteorology

The expedition Arctic Ocean 2025, blog post 2: Arriving at the North Pole

A week has passed on the Swedish/Canadian icebreaker expedition to the central Arctic Ocean and late Saturday afternoon we arrive at the North Pole where we stayed until the very early hours of Sunday. Everyone got together on the bridge and as we arrived on the North Pole we cheered eachother with a glass of (alcohol free) bubbles. After the crew had moored us to an ice floes, we were allowed off the ship for some free time and also the mandatory group photo.

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Student releasing big white balloon in the air. Blue water and blue sky
Department of Meteorology

The expedition Arctic Ocean 2025, blog post 1: Releasing one of the first radiosoundings

The expedition Arctic Ocean 2025, with the research school on the Arctic climate system, is now well under way. We left Longyearbyen last Sunday August 10 under clear-blue skies and sunshine and this stayed with us through yesterday. Late last night we saw the first ice rather far north, and now were continuing north in ice and fog, as is usual along the ice edge this time of the year.

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Book cover.
Department of Meteorology

Earth's Energy Imbalance More Than Doubled in Recent Decades. New publication by MISU

Global warming stems from the difference between incoming solar and outgoing reflected and infrared radiation, causing energy buildup and climate impacts like rising temperatures and sea levels. In 2023, this imbalance reached a new record high, twice that of the IPCC best estimate. Improved understanding and monitoring are urgently needed.

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Department of Environmental Science

Isoprene nitrates drive aerosol formation in the upper atmosphere in the tropics

In a major scientific breakthrough, researchers from the Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University have been at the forefront of uncovering the critical role of isoprene nitrates in forming new particles in the upper troposphere over the Amazon rainforest.

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Portraits of six researchers combined

Six researchers share SEK 175 million from the Wallenberg Foundation

The importance of Arctic methane emissions for the climate, how matter is formed and broken down, evolutionary shifts in the plant kingdom, and new effective methods for producing bioactive substances that will meet future needs for medicines and advanced electronics. These are just a few examples of basic research at Stockholm University that has received funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

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Department of Environmental Science

Department scientists to showcase climate research at ForskarFredag

ForskarFredag 2024 returns this week with the theme of "Research in Everyday Life," and the Department of Environmental Science, a long-term partner of this yearly event, will have a significant presence. On September 27, with a strong focus on climate science, the Department will present displays with researchers involved in the ARTofMELT (AoM) research expedition in the Arctic, as well as feature talks by prominent scientists Associate Professor Paul Glantz and Professor Kevin Noone.

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Professor emeritus Hilding Sundqvist. Photo: MISU's photo archives
Department of Meteorology

Hilding Sundqvist in memoriam

Professor emeritus Hilding Sundqvist has passed away in Rättvik at the age of 90. Hilding worked at MISU for most of his career. At first as a research assistant and a PhD student, later as an associate professor and full professor. Hilding’s research area was dynamic meteorology with emphasis on cloud physics and numerical modeling.

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Icebreaker Oden outside Stephenson Island entering the Victoria Fjord.

Arctic expedition has entered remote Greenland fjord

Icebreaker Oden has as the first vessel ever now reached the remote and uncharted Victoria fjord at northern Greenland. Read an update from the GEOEO North of Greenland 2024 expedition on its challenging battle against multiyear sea ice and pressure ridges.

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Princip för strålningsmätning från rymden. Bild: Thorsten Mauritsen/MISU/Stockholms universitet
Department of Meteorology

MISU satellite project receives funding from the Swedish National Space Agency

MISU’s researcher Thorsten Mauritsen has been awarded funds from the Swedish National Space Agency to develop the satellite project Earth Climate Observatory (ECO) which is competing to be part of the European Space Agency ESA’s program Earth Explorer. The project is one of four main candidates and in 2029 one of these candidates will be chosen by ESA for the program.

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Deltagare i workshop samlade till gruppfoto. Foto: Michael Tjernström/MISU/Stockholms universitet.
Department of Meteorology

1st ARTofMELT Science Workshop

The ARTofMELT science team met the first time after the expedition in May and June 20223 for a three-day science workshop at Stockholm University 22-24 April. The meeting was a great success and everyone left exhausted but also invigorated and eager to keep working together on understanding when, where and how the Arctic starts to melt in spring.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Deciphering coastal climate impact: Sandviken Bay exploration

Is there a difference between healthy and degraded coastal bays in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and uptake? To answer this question, researchers from different disciplines are working together carrying out various measurements along the Swedish coast. Come with us to Sandviken Bay, where the first of several days of a new sampling campaign took place.

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Department of Environmental Science

Bridging skies and fields: two Indian students’ journey to empower farmers with accurate forecasts

In the lush landscapes of India, where over 50% of the population depends on agriculture, weather forecasts can mean the difference between prosperity and devastation. Two Indian PhD students, Rahul Ranjan and Shubham Singh, friends with a shared passion for meteorology, are pioneering a transformation in weather forecasting to support these farmers. Their journey, from the halls of Stockholm- and Lund Universities in Sweden back to the rural heartlands of India, is a story of creativity, dedication, and hope.

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Department of Environmental Science

Environmental Science Research Day 2024: A call to arms for academia and activists alike

In an ambitious gathering of 170 participants, organized by the Department of Environmental Science and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, the Aula Magna auditorium played host to the Environmental Science Research Day on 1 February 2024.

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Department of Environmental Science

New study sheds new light on forests' role in climate and water cycle

Forests, which cover a third of Earth's land surface, are pivotal in carbon storage and the water cycle, though the full scope of their impact remains to be fully understood. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Stockholm University and international colleagues provide new insights into the complex role forests play in the climate system and water cycle.

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Projektet CleanClouds logotyp.
Department of Meteorology

Aerosol-cloud project will increase reliability of climate models

There are large gaps in the knowledge of the relationship between aerosols and clouds, which makes it the largest uncertainty factor in climate models. Annica Ekman, Department of Meteorology, and Paul Zieger, Department of Environmental Science, have received funding for the project ”Clouds and climate transitioning to post-fossil aerosol regime: CleanCloud” from Horizon Europe. The project aims at substantially increasing the knowledge about the interplay between aerosols and clouds and improving the representation of related processes in climate models.

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Department of Environmental Science

Unraveling the secret role of plant emissions in cloud formation and climate change

Researchers at the Department of Environmental Science are studying the intricate narrative of how plant emissions shape our climate. This expansive project, supported by the Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation, intertwines field experiments in the verdant expanses of Swedish coniferous forests and the lush tropics with advanced theoretical research, aiming to refine our understanding of climate.

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Department of Environmental Science

Stockholm University's novel mobile marine observatory: A vision for sustainable coastal research

Nestled in the Stockholm archipelago, the Askö Laboratory is on the brink of transforming into a hub for groundbreaking coastal atmospheric research, thanks to the highly anticipated addition of a floating air-sea interaction observatory.

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plants growing out of coins
Department of Environmental Science

Thirteen department researchers secure nearly 50 million SEK from leading Swedish agencies

Thirteen researchers from the Department of Environmental Science have achieved significant success in the recent funding rounds organized by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas), securing close to 49.1 million SEK (€4.3 million) for 15 projects.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Major Baltic Sea research initiative - 12 PhD positions open

Within a new graduate school in ocean, climate and environmental issues, 12 doctoral students will be admitted at several of Stockholm University's departments.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

PFAS back to haunt us – through sea spray

The man-made, and in many cases hazardous, chemicals called PFAS were previously believed to finally be transported to and diluted in the oceans. But at the last Baltic Breakfast, scientists at Stockholm University presented new research showing that these chemicals are enriched at the sea surface and return to land through sea spray aerosols, creating an almost never-ending transportation cycle.

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Tundra near the Ny-Ålesund village

Biological particles play crucial role in Arctic cloud ice formation

An international team of scientists from Sweden, Norway, Japan, and Switzerland, has presented research findings that reveal a crucial role of biological particles, including pollen, spores, and bacteria, in the formation of ice within Arctic clouds. These findings, published in Nature Communications, have far-reaching implications for climate science and our understanding of the rapidly changing Arctic climate.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

The smell of the sea – a key to understanding climate change?

How does the smell of the sea impact the world’s climate? This question lies at the heart of the Cyano-VOC research project. Within this endeavour, aerosol chemists collaborate with microbiologists to investigate the volatile organic compounds emitted by cyanobacteria and other plankton residing along the coastlines of the Baltic Sea.

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Ocean with Antarctica in background. Photo: Peter Kuma/MISU/Stockholm University
Department of Meteorology

Climate model “family trees” reduce biases in study results

MISU researchers Peter Kuma, Frida Bender and Aiden Jönsson have developed a computer-based genealogy of climate models, with focus on atmospheric processes, that will help researchers account for the code relationships among different models. By applying these statistical methods, biases in study results can be reduced.

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Department of Social Anthropology

Anthropologist admitted to the Pro Futura programme

Chakad Ojani has been admitted to the Pro Futura Sciencia programme for promising early-career scholars. In the coming five years he will be working on the project ‘Oceans in the sky’ that deals with fog capture in coastal Peru.

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Krishnakant Budhavant and Prof Örjan Gustafsson at the station in the Maldives

Measurements reveal the impact of air pollution on climate and health in southern Asia

Researchers from Stockholm University are involved in the operation of two strategically placed measurement stations in the Maldives and Bangladesh, which capture air pollutants that affect people’s health and the climate. These pollutants come from diverse sources across the Indian subcontinent, which the research is seeking to pinpoint.

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Ice bergs at Greenland and the West Antarctic

Overshooting climate targets could significantly increase risk for tipping cascades

Temporarily overshooting the climate targets of 1.5-2 degrees Celsius could increase the tipping risk of several Earth system elements by more than 70 per cent. The tipping risk increases even if in the longer term the global temperature stabilizes within the Paris range. This is the result of a new risk analysis by researchers at Stockholm university published in Nature Climate Change.

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Kolkraftverk i östra Europa. rök kommer ur skorstenar

Large parts of Europe are warming twice as fast as the planet on average

The warming during the summer months in Europe has been much faster than the global average, shows a new study by researchers at Stockholm University published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres. As a consequence of human emissions of greenhouse gases, the climate across the continent has also become drier, particularly in southern Europe, leading to worse heat waves and an increased risk of fires.

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MATS light

Satellite MATS takes its first image of the upper atmosphere

On November 9th, it was time for MATS to take the first images of the atmosphere. At 10:32 CET, MATS was approaching Esrange Space Center – a centre for space activities and satellite communication located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. At that moment, the control center, operated by OHB Sweden that built the MATS satellite platform, came in contact with the satellite via the tracking antenna at Esrange.

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Claudia Mohr

From Trees to Clouds: towards understanding the role of forests in climate change

Plants are known to not only remove CO2 from the atmosphere but to also emit thousands of compounds, known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), whose role in climate change has largely been “overlooked.” Now, researchers from Stockholm University will launch a new research project into the role of VOC emissions in climate change.

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World map with climate tipping points marked. Image credit: Stockholm Resilience Centre/Stockholm Un
Department of Meteorology

Several crucial climate tipping points may be passed at 1.5°C of global warming

Several crucial tipping points in the Earth's climate system may be passed if the global average temperature rise goes above 1.5°C. A new study published in the journal Science shows that the goal to limit warming to below 2°C is not enough to avoid dangerous changes in climate.

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Forskningsfartyget Electra
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Electra on major expedition to map Baltic Sea methane

Stockholm University's research vessel Electra sets off today across the Baltic Sea for a major multidisciplinary expedition off the Finnish coast. Through extensive sampling of sediment, water and air, researchers at the new CoastClim centre will map how much methane from the seabed is reaching the atmosphere and affecting the climate.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

CoastClim partnership signed at the Askö Laboratory anniversary in presence of the Crown Princess

An anniversary is of course about looking back, but just as much about looking forward, stated Stockholm University President Astrid Söderberg Widding at the recent 60th anniversary of the Askö Laboratory. One important composition of the future Baltic Sea science is the foundation of the CoastClim centre, that binds together both climate and marine research and the universities of Stockholm and Helsinki.

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Moln över vatten
Department of Meteorology

When three’s not a crowd: vapour cocktail drives new particle formation in the upper troposphere

Newly-formed particles are important for cloud formation and are persistently observed over almost all regions of Earth’s upper troposphere. However, the vapours and mechanisms that drive the formation of these particles are not understood. Now, a new study by an international team of researchers, including scientists from MISU, published in Nature presents a new mechanism via an unexpected synergy between nitric acid-, sulfuric acid- and ammonia vapours for extremely rapid particle formation and growth that may be an important source of new particles in the upper troposphere. The new findings can inform pollution policies and improve future climate predictions.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Big grant to a Baltic Sea Fellow

One of our Baltic Sea Fellows, Wei-Li Hong from the Department of Geological Sciences, today got a prestigious award from the Swedish Foundations’ Starting Grant. We are very proud, says Christoph Humborg, scientific leader at the Baltic Sea Centre and coordinator of the Baltic Fellows interdisciplinary network of young Baltic Sea researchers.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

View the Askö inlet live streamed from our web camera

The sea outside of the Askö laboratory is live streamed from a web camera on our weather station. See what the sea looks like right now - Are the waves beating or is the sea calm? Is the sun shining or is the night sky reflected in the sea? Maybe you will see a white tailed eagle fly by or detect some of the birds that are breeding on the islands.

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Research projects

Aged Sea Spray Project

Sea spray aerosols are ubiquitous over much of the Earth's surface and are especially important in remote regions with few other aerosol sources. As such, they may have a pronounced impact on climate through direct and indirect effects on the radiation budget.

Cliffs in the ocean. White foam around cliff.
An Integrated View on Coupled Aerosol-Cloud Interactions (INTEGRATE)

Despite their abundance in the Earth’s atmosphere, cloud formation and evolution are still poorly understood. This is particularly true for the interactions clouds have with atmospheric aerosol particles and their precursor vapors, which hampers our knowledge on the role that clouds and precipitation play in the climate system and in governing air quality.

Clouds in blue sky
Arctic Climate Across Scales

The polar regions are especially sensitive for climate change and the warming the Arctic is more than twice as fast as elsewhere on Earth. The effects of this warming are large, with a dramatic loss of sea ice as an example.

Research
Baltic Sea Observatory for coastal ecosystems and climate change

This research project is conducted within the CoastClim research group and brings together cutting-edge expertise in marine ecology, biogeochemistry and atmospheric physics to quantify the full spectrum of habitat-specific greenhouse gas fluxes and aerosol production in the Baltic coastal zone.

CRiceS

CRiceS - Climate Relevant interactions and feedbacks: the key role of sea ice and Snow in the polar and global climate system

CRiceS logotype
Effect of glacial melt on East Greenland Fjord ecosystems

Climate change is speeding up glacier melt, releasing methane and carbon into oceans. This leads to CO2 release via mineralization, contributing to acidification and greenhouse gas emissions. To predict carbon flux impacts on ocean chemistry, we need baseline data on the fate of this material.

FORCeS

FORCeS - Constrained aerosol forcing for improved climate projections

Research
GEOEO – North of Greenland 2024 Expedition

In August–September 2024, the North of Greenland expedition with IB Oden will go to Northern Greenland and the adjacent Arctic Ocean, including the Lincoln Sea. The expedition forms a part of the research theme GEOEO (North Greenland Earth-Ocean-Ecosystem Observatory), which has been endorsed through the Polar Research Process.

Storm track intensity and midlatitude cloud feedback

Clouds in the tropics and midlatitudes contribute roughly equally to the global cloud feedback. However, there is still no accepted explanation for why midlatitude cloud feedback is positive or what mechanisms determine its magnitude.

Schematic of clouds and the general circulation. Satellite view of clouds around a cyclone.
TRIACID: Mapping acidification trends in the Baltic Sea

The TRIACID project has mapped acidification trends in different regions of the Baltic Sea during the past 40 years. The project has described spatial variation and trends in pH status, and the main drivers of changing pH have been identified.

The MATS satellite

MATS (Mesospheric Airglow/Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy) is a Swedish satellite mission designed to investigate atmospheric waves. Large uncertainties in the distribution of such waves is a limiting factor for atmospheric models in predicting future changes in the mesosphere, the region bordering space at 50-100 km above sea level.

Satellit i rymden. Satellite in space.
Tropical precipitation tipping-points (TPTP)

Previously proposed tipping-points that would lead to the tropical rain forest systems’ collapse involve positive feedback processes. Yet, the Amazon rain forest has persisted despite higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the past.

Map and schematic for feedback mechanisms. Figure: Thorsten Mauritsen/MISU/Stockholm University
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Research groups

Baltic Sea Oceanography

The Baltic Sea is one of the best-surveyed and studied seas on Earth. Yet the Baltic Sea circulation and its role in the complex climate system is neither fully quantified nor understood, in spite of important implications for coastal societies of the Baltic Sea region.

Photo: Benjamin Jones/Stockholm University
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Circulation and connection land-sea-atmosphere

Over long timescales, the circulation systems co-evolve with ice sheets, mountain ranges, and redistributions of carbon between the atmosphere, ocean and land. The circulation and associated feedbacks influence exchanges of energy and materials between compartments of the climate system, and create teleconnections and natural climate variability.

Image: Ines Jakobsson/Stockholm University
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Clouds, airborne particles and gases

A continued change in the atmospheric content of greenhouse gases and particles is estimated to result in future warming well above 1.5°C, compared with pre-industrial levels. It is uncertain how much heating is masked by the cooling effect of the particles, especially the effect of the particles on the distribution and properties of the clouds.

Clouds. Photo: Marianne Lagerklint/MISU/Stockholm University
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Dynamic Meteorology

How and why the atmosphere moves is studied within dynamic meteorology. The atmosphere is never still and its movement can be described by partial differential equations which describe how changes in speed, density, pressure and temperature occur. We study these movements from the smallest scale of turbulence to planetary waves.

Figure of atmospheric processes. From Albert A.M. Holtslag,2003: Atmospheric turbulence
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Middle and Upper Atmosphere

Middle atmosphere research at MISU focuses on altitudes between about 10 and 130 km. We use satellites, sounding rockets and ground-based instruments to explore this fascinating part of our planet. As a current highlight, we launched Sweden’s new research satellite in November 2022: MATS.

The MATS satellite. Photo: Linda Megner/Stockholm University
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Polar Meteorology and Oceanography

The global warming is not uniformly distributed over the Earth. The polar regions are especially sensitive for climate change and the warming in the Arctic is more than twice as fast as for the Earth on average. The effects of this warming are large, with a dramatic loss of sea ice as an example.

The icebreaker Oden on expedition in the Arctic. Photo: Michael Tjernström/MISU/Stockholm University
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The North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans

In the North Atlantic, a mighty current system conveys, via the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current, warm surface waters to northerly subpolar areas where deep water is formed. This current system, which is an important link in the global ocean circulation connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, also carries warm Atlantic water into the Arctic Ocean.

Ocean and clouds. Photo: Johan Nilsson/MISU/Stockholm University
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      "localizations": {}
    }
  ]
}