In 2010, NILU opened a new monitoring station at Andøya, at 69º16´42´´N, 16º00´31´´E, 380 metres a.s.l., financed by Klif, the Norwegian Pollution and Climate Agency. The main goal of the monitoring programme at Andøya is to identify and quantify types and amounts of environmental pollutants found in Norway’s coastal waters.

The monitoring programme includes the main organic pollutants as well as trace elements, along with meteorological and CO/CO2 measurements (see table below). The station is also an important part of Norway’s overall climate monitoring network.

NILU is responsible for monitoring, while the nearby Andøya Rocket Range is responsible for sampling and daily operations. These results are a significant complement to the existing observatories on Svalbard (Zeppelin) and in southern Norway (Birkenes).

The new station is located only a few hundred metres from an existing monitoring station called ALOMAR, the Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research. This location to enables us to benefit from co-located measurements.

ALOMAR was established in 1994. One of the most important activities at the site is the monitoring of the stratospheric ozone layer using LIDAR and UV spectrometers. The cost of the monitoring programme is partly covered by Klif’s ozone and UV monitoring programme. With the recent increased interest in climate change, we have also added instruments to study the atmospheric boundary layer, long-range transport of aerosols in the troposphere and cirrus clouds. The collaboration of a number of institutions help make this possible, including NILU, the University of Oslo, the University of Valladolid in Spain, and the Andøya Rocket Range, which actually owns ALOMAR.

A team of researchers from Bioforsk, NILU, and the Smithsonian Institution in the United States is also investigating the fluxes of CO2 and methane from a pristine mire a few kilometres from the observatory.