10.April.2014, Helsinki, Finland
PEEX Task proposal
1.Task Title: Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX)
2.Name of leaders and partners:
PEEX- Preparatory Committee Members
 Academy Prof. Markku Kulmala Univ.Helsinki , Finland
 Prof. Sergej Zilitinkevich Finnish Meteorolological Institute, Finland
 Director Yrjö Viisanen Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
 Prof. Vladimir Kotlyakov Inst. of Geography, Russia
 Prof. Nikolay Kasimov Moscow State University, Russia
 Prof. Valery Bondur AEROCOSMOS, Russia
 Prof. Gennady Matvienko Inst. of Atmospheric Optics SB RAS, Russia
 Prof. Guo Huadong, Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth, CAS, Beijing, China
 Prof. Li Chongyin, Institute of Atmospheric physics, CAS, Beijing, China
 Prof. Alexander Baklanov, World Meteorological Organization
3.Other Partners:
PEEX Research Community in Europe, Russia, China.
PEEX is a bottom-up initiative by several European, Russian and Chinese research organizations and
institutes. PEEX-1 science meeting was held in Helsinki in October 2012. PEEX is open for other institutes
to join in.
4. Objective:
PEEX "Pan-Eurasian Experiment" is a multidisciplinary climate change, air quality, environment and
research infrastructure program focused on the Northern Eurasian particularly arctic and boreal regions. It is
a bottom up initiative by several European, Russian and Chinese research organizations and institutes. The
overall goal of PEEX is to solve interlinked global challenges like climate change, air quality, biodiversity
loss, chemicalisation, food supply, energy production and fresh water in integrative way recognizing the
increasing role of the arctic and northern boreal forests in the context of global change.
PEEX-MISSION: To be a next generation natural sciences and socio-economic research initiative having a
major impact on the future environmental, socio-economic and demography development of the Arctic and
boreal regions. To be a science community building novel infrastructures and capacities in the Northern Pan
Eurasian region.
PEEX Objectives / Focus areas:

Focus-1: PEEX research agenda: to understand and quantify biogeochemical cycles, land use
change, biosphere/cryosphere - atmosphere interactions, atmospheric and ecological processes and
their relations and interlinks to e.g. energy production, natural resources, transport and urbanization
in various Pan-Eurasian environments

Focus-2: PEEX Infrastructures: to establish a sustainable, long-term Pan Eurasian research
Infrastructure building on and coordinating existing activities and infrastructures; a particular focus
is comprehensive research stations (Station for Measuring Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations,
SMEAR) including development of new instruments and harmonized data products to be
implemented to the models of appropriate spatial and temporal scales and topical focus.

Focus-3: PEEX Society dimension: to deliver climate scenarios in Pan Eurasian context and analyze
the climate-air quality interactions and human interactions and impacts. Furthermore, it will assess
the natural hazards (floods, forest fires, droughts) under cryospheric changes in PEEX domain and
provide a mitigation plans for sustainable land use, health and energy production.

Focus-4: Knowledge Transfer: to promote exploitation of PEEX scientific outcomes and assessments
to policy making, education of next generation environment experts and scientists and increase
public awareness of the climate change impacts in Pan Eurasian region.
4. Need
Pan Eurasian region represents one the Earth most extensive areas of boreal forest (taiga) and the largest
natural wetlands, thus being a significant source area of trace gas emissions, biogenic aerosol particles, and
source and sink area for the greenhouse gases (GHG) in a global scale. One of the first implementation
activities of the PEEX initiative is to establish a process towards high level Pan-Eurasian Observation
Networks. Siberian region is currently lacking a coordinated, coherent ground based atmosphere-ecosystem
measurement network, which is a crucial component for observing and predicting the effects of climate
change in the Northern Pan-Eurasian region.
5. Short description
Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) is a new multidisciplinary research approach aiming at resolving the major
uncertainties in the Earth system science and global sustainability questions in the Arctic and boreal PanEurasian regions [1] (http://www.atm.helsinki.fi/peex/). PEEX initiative is built on a bottom-up initiative by
several European, Russian and Chinese research organizations and institutes. The main goal of PEEX
Research agenda is to contribute to solving the scientific questions that are specifically important for the
Pan-Eurasian region in the coming years, in particular the global climate change and its consequences to
nature and human society. Pan Eurasian region represents one the Earth most extensive areas of boreal
forest (taiga) and the largest natural wetlands, thus being a significant source area of trace gas emissions,
biogenic aerosol particles, and source and sink area for the greenhouse gas (GHG) exchange in a global
[2,3,4,5]. One of the first implementation activities of the PEEX initiative is to establish a process towards
high level Pan-Eurasian Observation Network Siberian region. A new typed, coherent ground based
atmosphere-ecosystem measurement network is a crucial component for observing and predicting the effects
of climate change in the Northern Pan-Eurasian region. The Preliminary Phase of the PEEX Observation
network will cover the SMEAR-type stations [6] in Finland , Estonia and in China supplemented with
selected existing observation stations in Russia and China. The ground based observation setup would be
completed by the remote sensing infrastructure. The PEEX program will bring the observation setup into
international context with the with standardized or comparable procedures. It will prove a basis for the longterm continuation of advanced measurements on aerosols, clouds, GHGs and trace gases in Northern PanEurasian area.
References
[1] Kulmala M., et al. 2011, Boreal Env. Res. 16: 337-362.
[2] Guenther A. et al. . 1995 J. Geophys. Res. 100: 8873-8892.
[3] Timkovsky I.I., et al. 2010. Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics, 46, 319-327.
[4] Tunved P., et al. 2006, Science 312, 261-263.
[5] Glagolev M.V. et al. 2010. Moscow University Soil Science Bulletin, 65, 86-93.
[6] Hari, P. et al. 2009, Boreal Env. Res., 14, 442–446.
6. Funding
PEEX Implementation Plan consist of three components:
 Coordination and facilitation of existing activities (projects, infrastructures, education),
 Establishing new PEEX activities; new research project,
 Collaboration with international organization and networks.
Funding consists of national and bilateral funding between the participating countries as well as and in-kind
contributions of the participating institutions.
6. Timeline
PEEX Preparatory Phase is 2012-2017.
7. Outcome
PEEX aims to establish a long-term research infrastructure (RI) including a comprehensive field station
network in the region covering Scandinavia and Baltic countries, Siberia and northern China and
corresponding integrated modeling tools for PEEX.A hierarchical station network to increase the needed
quantitative process understanding of the complex, multidisciplinary system will be designed based on the
existing infrastructure representing different environments (i) basic weather stations, (ii) flux (Fluxnet)
stations and (iii) flag ship stations with comprehensive ecosystem-atmosphere measurements on sources and
sinks for greenhouse gases, trace gases and aerosols and (iv) satellite receiving stations with full coverage of
the Pan-Eurasian and Arctic regions.
The observation system based on the currently existing infrastructure will be supplemented by the flag ship
station network. A super-site station measures meteorological and atmospheric factors simultaneously
together with ecosystem relevant processes (incl. carbon, nutrient and water cycles, vegetation dynamics,
biotic and abiotic stresses). Ideally, the PEEX RI will contain one flag ship station in all major ecosystems,
in practice a station in every 2000- 3000 km. The future PEEX research infrastructure is supporting and
complementing aircraft and satellite observations which provide complementary (to the local in situ
observations) information on the spatial distribution of atmospheric composition (aerosols, trace gases,
greenhouse gases, clouds), land and ocean surface properties including vegetation and snow/ice. Vice versa,
the PEEX infrastructure has an important role in validation, integration, full exploitation of satellite data for
Earth Observations. Furthermore, procedures for improved data quality including standardization of
instruments, methods, observations, data processing will be developed taking. The role of remote sensing
observations is emphasized in remote areas such as the Arctic Ocean, maritime environments and most of the
Arctic land areas with virtual no in situ observations. The PEEX infrastructure will deliver critical long-term
datasets for the climate and air quality research including evaluation of weather forecast, air quality and
climate models. The strategic focus is to ensure the long-term continuation of advanced measurements on
aerosols, clouds, GHGs and trace gases in Northern Eurasian area. The PEEX project is targeted as an
integral part of the on-going work of scoping and building the next generation European research
infrastructures. Linking PEEX to European RI development ensures the optimal use of the infrastructures,
the data and infrastructure sharing of Earth Observations and their scientific contribution towards Earth
System modelling. For this purpose a hierarchy/framework of modern multi-scale models for different
elements of the Earth System integrated with the observation system will be elaborated.
8. For Contact:
Executive Officer, Research Coordinator Dr. Hanna Lappalainen, Univ. Helsinki ATM / FMI
SAON committee member, CDIS
hanna.k.lappalainen(at)helsininki.fi
+358 50 434 1710
Science Director, Head of Measurement Group, Prof. Tuukka Petäjä, Univ. Helsinki ATM
SAON committee member, CON
tuukka.petaja(at)Helsinki.fi
+350 50 4155 278