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International audience; Integrative and Comprehensive Understanding on Polar Environments (iCUPE) project developed 24 novel datasets utilizing in-situ observational capacities within the Arctic or remote sensing observations from ground or from space. The datasets covered atmospheric, cryospheric, marine, and terrestrial domains. This paper connects the iCUPE datasets to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and showcases the use of selected datasets as knowledge provision services for policy- and decision-making actions. Inclusion of indigenous and societal knowledge into the data processing pipelines enables a feedback mechanism that facilitates data driven public services.

Polar areas are the most sensitive targets of the climate change and the continuous monitoring of the cryosphere represents a critical issue. The satellite remote sensing can fill this gap but further integration between remotely-sensed multi-spectral images and field data is crucial to validate retrieval algorithms and climatological models. The optical behaviour of snow, at different wavelengths, provides significant information about the micro-physical characteristics of the surface and this allow to discriminate different snow/ice covers. The aim of this work is to present an approach based on combining unmanned observations on spectral albedo and on the analysis of time-lapse images of sky and ground conditions in an Arctic test-site (Svalbard, Norway). Terrestrial photography can provide, in fact, important information about the cloud cover and support the discrimination between white-sky or clear-sky illuminating conditions. Similarly, time-lapse cameras can provide a detailed description of the snow cover, estimating the fractional snow cover area. The spectral albedo was obtained by a narrow band device that was compared to a full-range commercial system and to remotely sensed data acquired during the 2015 spring/summer period at the Amundsen - Nobile Climate Change Tower (Ny Ålesund). The results confirmed the possibility to have continuous observations of the snow surface (microphisical) characteristics and highlighted the opportunity to monitor the spectral variations of snowed surfaces during the melting period. It was possible, therefore, to estimate spectral indexes, such as NDSI and SWIR albedo, and to found interesting links between both features and air/ground temperatures, wind-speed and precipitations. Different melting phases were detected and different processes were associated with the observed spectral variations.

Shridhar D. Jawak, Bo N. Andersen, Veijo Pohjola, Øystein Godøy, Kim Holmén, Agnar Sivertsen, Richard Hann, Hans Tømmervik, Andreas Kääb, Małgorzata Błaszczyk, Roberto Salzano, Bartłomiej Luks, Kjell Arild Høgda, Rune Storvold, Lennart Nilsen, Rosamaria Salvatori, Kottekkatu Padinchati Krishnan, Sourav Chatterjee, Dag A. Lorentzen, Rasmus Erlandsson, Tom Rune Lauknes, Eirik Malnes, Stein Rune Karlsen, Hiroyuki Enomoto, Ann Mari Fjæraa, Jie Zhang, Sabine Marty, Knut Ove Nygård, Heikki Lihavainen, Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) is an international partnership of research institutions studying the environment and climate in and around Svalbard. SIOS is developing an efficient observing system, where researchers share technology, experience, and data, work together to close knowledge gaps, and decrease the environmental footprint of science. SIOS maintains and facilitates various scientific activities such as the State of the Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report, international access to research infrastructure in Svalbard, Earth observation and remote sensing services, training courses for the Arctic science community, and open access to data. This perspective paper highlights the activities of SIOS Knowledge Centre, the central hub of SIOS, and the SIOS Remote Sensing Working Group (RSWG) in response to the unprecedented situation imposed by the global pandemic coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease 2019 (COVID-19). The pandemic has affected Svalbard research in several ways. When Norway declared a nationwide lockdown to decrease the rate of spread of the COVID-19 in the community, even more strict measures were taken to protect the Svalbard community from the potential spread of the disease. Due to the lockdown, travel restrictions, and quarantine regulations declared by many nations, most physical meetings, training courses, conferences, and workshops worldwide were cancelled by the first week of March 2020. The resumption of physical scientific meetings is still uncertain in the foreseeable future. Additionally, field campaigns to polar regions, including Svalbard, were and remain severely affected. In response to this changing situation, SIOS initiated several operational activities suitable to mitigate the new challenges resulting from the pandemic. This article provides an extensive overview of SIOS’s Earth observation (EO), remote sensing (RS) and other operational activities strengthened and developed in response to COVID-19 to support the Svalbard scientific community in times of cancelled/postponed field campaigns in Svalbard. These include (1) an initiative to patch up field data (in situ) with RS observations, (2) a logistics sharing notice board for effective coordinating field activities in the pandemic times, (3) a monthly webinar series and panel discussion on EO talks, (4) an online conference on EO and RS, (5) the SIOS’s special issue in the Remote Sensing (MDPI) journal, (6) the conversion of a terrestrial remote sensing training course into an online edition, and (7) the announcement of opportunity (AO) in airborne remote sensing for filling the data gaps using aerial imagery and hyperspectral data. As SIOS is a consortium of 24 research institutions from 9 nations, this paper also presents an extensive overview of the activities from a few research institutes in pandemic times and highlights our upcoming activities for the next year 2021. Finally, we provide a critical perspective on our overall response, possible broader impacts, relevance to other observing systems, and future directions. We hope that our practical services, experiences, and activities implemented in these difficult times will motivate other similar monitoring programs and observing systems when responding to future challenging situations. With a broad scientific audience in mind, we present our perspective paper on activities in Svalbard as a case study.

The avalanche hazard is a critical task for the regional services in the Alpine region. For this reason, the characteristics of surface snow are continuously monitored in terms of micro-physics and metamorphism. The spatial distribution of the different types of snow covers (fresh snow, drift snow, melted snow, surface hoar, rain crusts, wet snow, dry snow) are used in the models aimed to forecast the avalanche hazard.Satellite data are very important for routinely monitoring the snow cover and data provided by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), onboard on the Terra and Aqua platforms, are an useful source of information for a modern avalanche assessment service.More than one hundred MODIS images were processed, in the 2013-2020 period, for 2 areas located in the Dolomites, between Marmolada and Pale di San Martino groups (Veneto Region, Italy). The two training sites were used for the definition of a workflow useful for discriminating different types of snow surface. The defined workflow, based on the average radiometric values of bands 4, 5 and 6, were applied on the reflectances derived by the daily product MOD02HKM, with a spatial resolution of 500m. While band 4 and 5 (respectively visible radiation at 550nm and short-wave infrared at 1240nm) support the discrimination of different snow surfaces, the band 6 (short-wave infrared at 1630nm) is linked mainly to the presence of dry or wet snow on the surface.The proposed workflow provided classification maps that were validated using observations recorded at the meteorological stations located in the test areas and by field surveys carried out by snow scientists. These results support the availability of a reliable tool based on remotely-sensed data, evidenced by the good agreement with field observations, which can be an optimal input for avalanche forecasting.

The NoiseCap experiment was an unfunded follow up of the Energic-OD project (European NEtwork for Redistributing Geospatial Information to user Communities - Open Data), which had started in October 2014 and ended in September 2017 and had been supported by the European Union under the Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme (CIP).The project built on one of Energic-OD outcomes, the NoiseCapture Android app, allowing cell phone users to measure their outdoor noise environment and optionally share their measurements on the free and open-source Noise-Planet platform and scientific toolset for environmental noise assessment. Each noise measurement is annotated with its location and can be displayed in interactive noise maps, within the app and on the Noise-Planet portal.In NoiseCap, we were primarily interested in extending the NoiseCapture use case to indoor settings, hence we chose to focus on air traffic noise (namely landing events), which is well characterized and identifiable by citizens living in airport surroundings. Our experiment targeted the neighbourhood of the airport of Florence, Italy, but may be easily reproduced in any similar community. We were also interested in assessing the reliability of commercial cell phone in measuring indoor noise, by comparing collected data with appropriate reference measurement.User participation in NoiseCap was on a completely voluntary basis, e.g. volunteers were free to choose whether to measure any given landing event, during the period of the campaign, which lasted for several weeks. Participants were mainly enrolled through the local network of environmental activists and were asked to follow a simple protocol, to ensure their individual measurements would be taken in nearly identical conditions, in particular from the same spot, specified by the volunteer during registration.From a technological viewpoint, the implementation of NoiseCap has highlighted a substantial lack of open Event-Driven standards and solutions in contemporary Spatial Data Infrastructures, e.g. for processing spatial time series, identify events and apply event pattern matching. We have developed a customized architectural approach, including a notification service based on raw ADS-B Mode S data processing and a proprietary solution (Telegram-based push messages), to alert the volunteers with individual time-before-overflight estimations.In conclusion, the NoiseCap experiment has provided useful insights on Event-Driven Architectures, as well as on the application of citizen science to sensitive issues in local communities.

The role of polar regions increases in terms of megatrends such as globalization, new transport routes, demography and use of natural resources consequent effects of regional and transported pollutant concentrations. We set up the ERA-PLANET Strand 4 project iCUPE – integrative and Comprehensive Understanding on Polar Environments to provide novel insights and observational data on global grand challenges with an Arctic focus. We utilize an integrated approach combining in situ observations, satellite remote sensing Earth Observations (EO) and multi-scale modeling to synthesize data from comprehensive long-term measurements, intensive campaigns and satellites to deliver data products, metrics and indicators to the stakeholders concerning the environmental status, availability and extraction of natural resources in the polar areas. The iCUPE work consists of thematic state-of-the-art research and provision of novel data in atmospheric pollution, local sources and transboundary transport, characterization of arctic surfaces and their changes, assessment of concentrations and impacts of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants and their cycling, quantification of emissions from natural resource extraction and validation and optimization of satellite Earth Observation (EO) data streams. In this paper we introduce the iCUPE project and summarize initial results arising out of integration of comprehensive in situ observations, satellite remote sensing and multiscale modeling in the Arctic context.

The estimation of radon progeny in the Arctic region represents a scientific challenge due to the required low limit of detection in consideration of the limited radon emanation associated with permafrost dynamics. This preliminary study highlighted, for the first time above 70∘ N, the possibility to monitor radon progeny in the Arctic region with a higher time resolution. The composition of the radon progeny offered the opportunity to identify air masses dominated by long-range transport, in presence or absence of near-constant radon progeny instead of long- and short-lived progenies. Furthermore, the different ratio between radon and thoron progenies evidenced the contributions of local emissions and atmospheric stability. Two different emanation periods were defined in accordance with the permafrost dynamics at the ground and several accumulation windows were recognized coherently to the meteo-climatic conditions occurring at the study site.

Surface melt, driven by atmospheric temperatures and albedo, is a strong contribution of mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet. In the past, black carbon, algae and other light-absorbing impurities were suggested to govern albedo in Greenland’s ablation zone. Here we combine optical (MODIS/Sentinel-2) and radar (Sentinel-1) remote sensing data with airborne radar and laser scanner data, and engage firn modelling to identify the governing factors leading to dark glacier surfaces in Northeast Greenland. After the drainage of supraglacial lakes, the former lake ground is a clean surface represented by a high reflectance in Sentinel-2 data and aerial photography. These bright spots move with the ice flow and darken by more than 20% over only two years. In contrast, sites further inland do not exhibit this effect. This finding suggests that local deposition of dust, rather than black carbon or cryoconite formation, is the governing factor of albedo of fast-moving outlet glaciers. This is in agreement with a previous field study in the area which finds the mineralogical composition and grain size of the dust comparable with that of the surrounding soils.

The relation between the fraction of snow cover and the spectral behavior of the surface is a critical issue that must be approached in order to retrieve the snow cover extent from remotely sensed data. Ground-based cameras are an important source of datasets for the preparation of long time series concerning the snow cover. This study investigates the support provided by terrestrial photography for the estimation of a site-specific threshold to discriminate the snow cover. The case study is located in the Italian Alps (Falcade, Italy). The images taken over a ten-year period were analyzed using an automated snow-not-snow detection algorithm based on Spectral Similarity. The performance of the Spectral Similarity approach was initially investigated comparing the results with different supervised methods on a training dataset, and subsequently through automated procedures on the entire dataset. Finally, the integration with satellite snow products explored the opportunity offered by terrestrial photography for calibrating and validating satellite-based data over a decade.

Polar areas are the most sensitive targets of climate change. From this perspective, the continuous monitoring of the cryosphere represents a critical issue, which, at the moment, we can only partially supply with specific satellite missions. Furthermore, the integration between remote-sensed multi-spectral images and field data is crucial to validate retrieval algorithms. The micro-physical characteristics of the snow surface and the presence of liquid water in the first layer of the snowpack can be determined in addition to the spatial distribution of snow/ice covers. The aim of this work is to present the field activity carried out in Ny-Alesund (Svalbard Islands, Norway), where an unmanned apparatus was installed to provide continuous spectral surface albedo. A full-range approach was adopted during the 2014 spring/summer period at the CNR Climate Change Tower. This setup was obtained using a spectroradiometer with a spectral range between 350 and 2500 nm integrated with a remote cosine receiver, characterized by a field of view of about 180°, mounted on a rotating support. The system was integrated with a camera aimed to acquire sky and ground images. The first results assessed the feasibility of continuous monitoring the spectral variations of snowed surfaces during the melting period. This study represents a first attempt to associate snow metamorphism to spectral variations and it supports the identification of relevant correlations with meteorological parameters.

In this work, new information has been gained on the laboratory-resuspended PM10 fraction from geological topsoil and outcropped rocks representative of the Rome area (Latium). Mineralogical composition, size distribution, optical properties and the surface radiative forcing efficiency (RFE) of dust types representing the compositional end members of this geological area have been addressed. A multi-disciplinary approach was used, based on chamber resuspension of raw materials and sampling of the PM10 fraction, to simulate field sampling at dust source, scanning electron microscopy/X-ray energy-dispersive microanalysis (SEM XEDS) of individual mineral particles, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of bulk dust samples, building of number and volume size distribution (SD) from microanalysis data of mineral particles and fitting to a log-normal curve, and radiative transfer modelling (RTM) to retrieve optical properties and radiative effects of the compositional end-member dust samples. The mineralogical composition of Rome lithogenic PM10 varies between an end-member dominated by silicate minerals (from volcanics lithotypes), and one mostly composed of calcite (from travertine or limestones). Lithogenic PM10 with intermediate composition derives mainly from siliciclastic rocks or marlstones. Size and mineral species of PM10 particles of silicate-dominated dust types are tuned mainly by rock weathering and, to lesser extent, by debris formation or crystallization; chemical precipitation of CaCO3 plays a major role in calcite-dominated types. These differences are reflected in the diversity of volume distributions, either within dust types or mineral species. Differences are also observed between volume distributions of calcite from travertine (natural source; SD unimodal at 5 μm a.d.) and from road dust (anthropic source; SD bimodal at 3.8 and 1.8 μm a.d.). The volcanics and travertine dusts differently affect the single scattering albedo (SSA) and the asymmetry parameter (g) in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) regions. The downward component of the bottom-of-atmosphere (BOA) solar irradiance simulated by RTM for an atmosphere where only volcanics (or only travertine dust) composes the aerosol, shows that the volcanics contribution to the solar irradiance differs significantly from that of travertine in the NIR region, while similar contributions are modelled in the VIS. The RFE (−293 W m−2 for volcanics and −139 W m−2 for travertine, at 50° solar zenith angle) shows that volcanics dust produces a stronger cooling effect at surface than travertine, as expected for more absorbing aerosols.

The estimation of radon progeny in the Arctic region represents a scientific challenge due to the required low limit of detection in consideration of the limited radon emanation associated with permafrost dynamics. This preliminary study highlighted, for the first time, the possibility to monitor radon progeny in the Arctic region with a higher time resolution. The composition of the radon progeny offered the opportunity to identify air masses dominated by long-range transport, in presence or not of near-constant radon progeny instead of long and short lived progenies. Furthermore, the different ratio between radon and thoron progenies evidenced the contributions of local emissions and atmospheric stability. Two different emanation periods were defined in accordance to the permafrost dynamics at the ground and several accumulation windows were recognized coherently to the meteo-climatic conditions occurring at the study site.

Snow cover extension is one of the most important parameters for the study of climate variations, of hydrological balance and also for the management of touristic activities in mountain areas. Recently, webcam images collected at daily or even hourly intervals are used as tools to observe the snow covered areas; those images, properly processed, can be considered a very important environmental data source. This paper presents the Snow-noSnow software specifically designed to automatically detect the extension of snow cover from webcam images. The software was tested on images collected on Alps (ARPAV webcam network) and on Apennine in a pilot station properly equipped for this project by CNR-IIA.

Diffuse and bi-directional reflectance spectroscopy were applied in this research in order to characterize chemical and mineralogical properties in volcanic soils. The study was conducted on 77 volcanic soil profiles from several European countries. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was used in conjunction with parameterization using the second derivative of the Kubelka-Munk function and colour calculation. From derivative curves, one band of interest was characterized and identified around 450 nm. Using correlation analysis, significant relationships were observed between amplitude of this band and Fed (r = 0.6). In addition, the data showed that soil organic matter content, Ald and Fep were moderately correlated with reflectance values centered at 546, 579 and 2048 nm.

Determining the mixing height using a tracer can improve the information obtained using traditional techniques. Here we provide an improved box model based on radon progeny measurements, which considers the vertical entrainment of residual layers and the variability in the soil radon exhalation rate. The potential issues in using progeny instead of radon have been solved from both a theoretical and experimental perspective; furthermore, the instrumental efficiency and the counting scheme have been included in the model. The applicability range of the box model has been defined by comparing radon-derived estimates with sodar and lidar data. Three intervals have been analyzed (“near-stable”, “transition” and “turbulent”), and different processes have been characterized. We describe a preliminary application case performed in Rome, Italy, while case studies will be required to determine the range limits that can be applied in any circumstances.

Airborne mineral dust plays a key role in the energy balance of the Earth - atmosphere coupled system. The microphysical and optical properties of dust drive the direct radiative effects and are in turn influenced by the dust mineralogical composition. The latter varies largely, depending on the geology of the source region. Knowledge gaps still exist about relationships between the scattering and absorption of solar and terrestrial radiation by mineral dust and its mineralogical, size distribution and particle morphology features; this also affects the reliability of radiative transfer (RT) modelling estimates (Hansell et al., 2011). In this study, these relationships were investigated focusing on the crustal suspended PM10 dust, sourced from outcropping rocks of the local geological domains around Rome (Latium, Italy). The mineral composition variability of the Latium rocks ranges from the silicate-dominated (volcanics domain) to the calcite-dominated (travertine), through lithological materials composed in different proportions by silicates, silica and calcite, mainly (limestone series, siliciclastic series) (Cosentino et al., 2009). This peculiarity of the Latium region was thus exploited to investigate the behavior of the size distribution, optical properties and radiative transfer at BOA (Bottom Of Atmosphere) of the suspended dust PM10 fraction with the variability of mineral composition. Elemental source profiles of the same dust samples were previously determined (Pietrodangelo et al., 2013). A multi-faceted analysis was performed, and outcomes from the following approaches were merged: individual-particle scanning electron microscopy combined with X-ray energy-dispersive microanalysis (SEM XEDS), bulk mineralogical analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD), size distribution fit of the individual-particle data set and modelling of the dust optical and radiative properties. To this aim, the 6SV atmospheric radiative transfer code (Kotchenova et al., 2008; Vermote et al., 1997) was employed, which computes aerosol optical properties (single-scattering albedo, asymmetry parameter, extinction coefficient, scattering coefficient, phase function) by the Mie Theory, and simulates the downward flux at BOA (FdBOA) by solving the radiative transfer equation. Conditions of dryness and of spherical particle shape were applied to all parts of this work. The size distribution fitting to the log-normal function appears unimodal, both for the volcanics and travertine domains, the first showing coarser mode than the latter. Volume distributions of quartz, feldspar, kaolinite and calcite fall in the coarse fraction, showing maximum around 5 micrometer (aerodynamic diameter); differences in the curve height suggest particle density variety among mineral species. The single-scattering albedo highlights the weak absorption of travertine, with respect to volcanics, along the visible and Near-InfraRed (NIR) spectral domain. The asymmetry parameter indicates that the volcanics dust appears composed by particles with highly forward scattering, mainly in the Near-InfraRed (NIR) spectral domain, while the travertine shows more isotropic particles. Finally, both volcanics and travertine dusts leave the direct component of FdBOA unchanged, while the diffuse component depends strongly on the mineral composition.

A particle-into-liquid sampler coupled with ion chromatograph (PILS-IC) for the on-line measurement of inorganic ions has been modified by the insertion of two ion-exchange pre-concentration cartridges that enrich the sample during the period of the IC analysis. The limits of detection of the modified instrument were 10-15 times lower and the time coverage 24 times higher (from 2 to 48 min per hour) than those of the original PILS-IC setup. The instrumental performance in terms of recovery and break-through volume from the cartridges was satisfactory. The modified PILS-IC was operated in comparison with a diffusion denuder line and with a high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-TOF-AMS) during a short intensive measurement period organized in the framework of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP), a co-operative program for monitoring and evaluation of the long-range transmission of the air pollutants in Europe. The instrument showed a quantitative response in agreement with the results of the diffusion lines, and an ability to trace fine concentration variations not so different from the performance of the much more complex HR-TOF-AMS. From the time patterns of the ion concentrations measured by the modified PILS-IC, it was possible to obtain useful information about the variations in the air quality and in the strength of the particulate matter sources.Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research

Land degradation processes like organic matter impoverishment and contamination are growing increasingly all over the world due to a non-rational and often sustainable spread of human activities on the territory. Consequently the need to characterize and monitor degraded sites is becoming very important, with the aim to hinder such main threats, which could compromise drastically, soil quality. Visible and infrared spectroscopy is a well-known technique/tool to study soil properties. Vis-NIR spectral reflectance, in fact, can be used to characterize spatial and temporal variation in soil constituents (Brown et al., 2006; Viscarra Rossel et al., 2006), and potentially its surface structure (Chappell et al., 2006, 2007). It is a rapid, non-destructive, reproducible and cost-effective analytical method to analyse soil properties and therefore, it can be a useful method to study land degradation phenomena. In this work, we present the results of proximal sensing investigations of three degraded sites (one affected by organic and inorganic contamination and two affected by soil organic matter decline) situated southern Italy close to Taranto city (in Apulia Region). A portable spectroradiometer (ASD-FieldSpec) was used to measure the reflectance properties in the spectral range between 350-2500 nm of the soil, in the selected sites, before and after a recovery treatment by using compost (organic fertilizer). For each measurement point the soil was sampled in order to perform chemical analyses to evaluate soil quality status. Three in-situ campaigns have been carried out (September 2012, June 2013, and September 2013), collecting about 20 soil samples for each site and for each campaign. Chemical and spectral analyses have been focused on investigating soil organic carbon, carbonate content, texture and, in the case of polluted site, heavy metals and organic toxic compounds. Statistical analyses have been carried out to test a prediction model of different soil quality indicators based on the spectral signatures behaviour of each sample ranging.

As well known, noble gases are often used as stable tracers in several geophysical environments, due to their basic property of being chemical noninteracting. Among these noble gases, the attention of researchers in the last decades has been focused on radon.

Air pollution and its impact have become one of the most important challenge for public authorities. The quantification of emissions as well as their spatial distribution are essential for any air quality program (Aleksandropoulou & Lazaridis, 2004; Sengupta et al., 1996). The selection of the location of monitoring stations is one of the most complex task that occurs in designing air monitoring networks. Several issues, as the harmful effects of pollution on both human health and environment, must be taken into account (Allegrini et al., 2004). The European directive 2008/50/CE of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air provides criteria about monitoring network. This directive has been issued in order to improve, clarify, simplify and replace the precedents five acts: • Council Directive 96/62/EC of 27 September 1996 on ambient air quality assessment and management; • Council Directive 1999/30/EC of 22 April 1999 relating to limit values for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and lead in ambient air; • Directive 2000/69/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 November 2000 relating to limit values for benzene and carbon monoxide in ambient air; • Directive 2002/3/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2002 relating to ozone in ambient air and; • Council Decision 97/101/EC of 27 January 1997 establishing a reciprocal exchange of information and data from networks and individual stations measuring ambient air pollution within the Member States. The Directive 2008/50/CE also introduces new air quality objectives and monitoring requirements for PM2.5. In addition to that the EU directive determines criteria for positioning monitoring stations, taking into account a detailed evaluation of environmental features on both local and regional scale. These objectives can be pursued by territorial analysis, which can be performed using a Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS is a computer-based information system that enables storing, modelling, manipulation, retrieval, analysis and presentation of geographically referenced data (Burrough, 2001). In particular this powerful tool allows a

Traffic emissions introduce in urban environments low-reflectance matter, which affects the optical properties of atmosphere and consequently of soils, where particulate matter is accumulated. Radiometric techniques, focused on the 350- 2500 nm wavelength range, were applied to investigate the alteration of optical properties of soils in urban environments. An integration between radiometric data and geochemical analyses was made to estimate the relationship occurring between optical properties of soils and their heavy metals content, which may trace traffic pollution. Soil samples were sampled in two study areas and treated to perform geochemical analyses and spectroradiometric acquisitions. An experimental analytical protocol was developed to study the optical properties of soils. The optical properties of urban soils are influenced by the deposition of carbonaceous particles and by the interaction between soil phases and traffic emissions. Results showed that the integrated approach of radiometric and geochemical investigations is a valid tool for monitoring traffic emissions in urban environments.

Particulate matter emitted by vehicles is responsible for many human health problems and the knowledge concerning exhaustion processes is a key issue. Detailed investigations are necessary in order to better understand how technological improvements are working on emission reduction: combined approaches can satisfy this demand. A combined methodology based on a non-destructive technique (Vis-NIR spectroradiometry) and a very precise method (Polycyclic Aromatic hydrocarbon "PAH" characterization) is presented. Particles produced by different types of vehicles (cars, heavy duty, etc.) were simulated on a chassis dynamometers by EniTecnologie, San Donato Milanese (Italy): collected filters were treated in order to acquire spectroradiometric signatures and to perform PAH characterization. Different driving conditions were taken into consideration: five cycles simulating driving conditions in an Italian-town and two experimental cycles set down by the current American and European legislation. This multiple approach represents a screening tool for targeting the most representative samples on which it is possible to perform very precise analyses. The added value of this methodology is to evaluate physical, chemical and toxic proper-ties on the same sample of particulate matter. reducing and simplifying sampling procedures.

Rapid, precise and quantitative assessment of soil quality is crucial for sustainable evaluation and monitoring of the effects of management on soil resource under agricultural systems and for the characterization and monitoring of land degradation processes. Over the past three decades, Visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy have been shown to be an effective alternative to conventional laboratory analysis, and can provide time and cost effective approaches for the prediction of several soil properties related to soil quality indicators. For this study, VIS–NIR spectroscopic and chemometric analysis were employed for the assessment of soil quality indicators in three degraded areas (two survey sites depleted in organic carbon and one polluted by organic and inorganic compounds) located in Southern Italy (Apulia Region). The soil reflectance properties in the wavelengths range between 350-2500 nm were measured in three experimental sites(fields) selected for the project, before and after a recovery treatment by using compost (organic fertilizer). The objectives was to evaluate the efficiency of soil VIS–NIR spectra for prediction of selected soil indicators closely related to soil quality in Mediterranean areas, such as those investigated in this study, affected by land degradation processes (contamination and/or organic carbon impoverishment).

Polar areas are the most sensitive targets of climate change. From this perspective, the continuous monitoring of the cryosphere represents a critical need, which, now, we can only partially supply with specific satellite missions. The integration between remote-sensed multi-spectral images and field data is crucial to validate retrieval algorithms and climatological models. The optical behavior of snow, at different wavelengths, provides significant information about the microphysical characteristics of the surface in addition to the spatial distribution of snow/ice covers. This work presents the unmanned apparatus installed at Ny Ålesund (Svalbard) that provides continuous spectral surface albedo. A narrow band device was compared to a full-range system, to remotely sensed data during the 2015 spring/summer period at the Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower. The system was integrated with a camera aimed to acquire sky and ground images. The results confirmed the possibility of making continuous observations of the snow surface and highlighted the opportunity to monitor the spectral variations of snowed surfaces during the melting period.

Atmospheric measurements of nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2), ozone (O3) and other constituents were carried out during three field campaigns (29 March–30 April 2010, 1–26 April 2011, 18 May–8 October 2015) at Ny-Ålesund. The study focused on the variability of important O3 precursors, such as NOx, in the Arctic troposphere, and on the impact from anthropogenic sources on their measured concentrations: higher NO and NO2 levels were mostly associated with the lowest wind speeds and northern directions, indicating local pollution. Long-range transported sources from Russia and Europe were also identified with an occurrence of high NOx levels. Several ozone depletion events were observed and associated to winds blowing from the north-west direction (Arctic Ocean). Most of these events were connected to the lower NO and NO2 concentrations. Measurements of halogen and low molecular weight carbonyl compounds in 2010 and 2011, respectively, showed variable effects during the ozone depletion events. Other data, such as high time-resolved radon progeny measurements, were used in 2015 to identify source tracking and transport of air masses, local effects and atmospheric stability dynamics that could influence the NOx concentrations at Ny-Ålesund.