Anthropogenic microparticles (AMs) were found for the first time in specimens of Trematomus bernacchii collected in 1998 in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) and stored in the Antarctic Environmental Specimen Bank. Most of the identified AMs were fibers of natural and synthetic origin. The natural AMs were cellulosic, the synthetic ones were polyester, polypropylene, polypropylene/polyester, and cellulose acetate. The presence of dyes in the natural AMs indicates their anthropogenic origin. Five industrial dyes were identified by Raman spectroscopy with Indigo occurring in most of them (55%). Our research not only adds further data to the ongoing knowledge of pollution levels in the Antarctic ecosystem, it provides an interesting snapshot of the past, highlighting that microplastics and anthropogenic fiber pollution had already entered the Antarctic marine food web at the end of the ‘90 s. These findings therefore establish the foundations for understand the changes in marine litter pollution over time.

Emerging COntaminants in Antarctic Snow: sources and TRAnsport (ECO AS:TRA) Prog. PNRA18_00229 Snow samples

The DoCTOr (Dome C Tropospheric Observer) project aims to establish an integrated monitoring system to measure simultaneously, continuously and with a high temporal resolution the water vapor and temperature vertical profiles and the radiative exchanges vs. altitude. The monitoring will enable us to detect both long-term trends and fast-evolving phenomena, the latter useful in the interpretation of the causes of the first. This task is performed mainly through remote sensing techniques, allowing for the study of a highly unperturbed atmospheric sample. The integration of all the deployed instrumentation in a single acquisition system simplifies greatly the data analysis needed to retrieve the final products: The REFIR-PAD spectroradiometer (already operating in dome C since 2011) will provide spectrally-resolved atmospheric downwelling radiances in the mid to far-infrared spectral range, while a laser diode based profiler will characterize the microphysics state of the first 3 km of the atmosphere.A real-time data analysis system based on an atmospheric radiative transfer model will then retrieve from the acquired data the temperature and water vapor profiles and the cloud optical thickness in almost all weather conditions found at Dome C, with a temporal resolution of about 10 minutes.

The HF radar denominated Dome C East (DCE) emits pulses of HF waves (8–20 MHz) which are refracted in the ionosphere and can be back-scattered by field aligned decameter scale irregularities of the electron density at distances ranging from 180 to 3550 km from each radar and at heights between 100 and 400 km. The radar signals are steered in 16 emission beams, separated by 3.3 degrees, in an azimuthal interval of 52 degrees, usually swept in 2 minutes. The signals are emitted according to multi-pulse sequences that allow the real-time acquisition of the autocorrelation function of the back scatter echoes, from which the reflected power, the VD Doppler velocity of the irregularities, and the spectral width can be calculated for each distance-azimuth cell. VD coincides with the velocity of the plasma along the line of sight. DCE is part of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). In SuperDARN, pairs of radars, typically located at 2000 km distance and oriented so that their beams cross each other over the region to be studied, are used to get the velocity vector in two dimensions. DCE forms a common-volume pair with the SuperDARN South Pole radar (U.S.). SuperDARN radars are devoted to the study of ionosphere, between 100 and 400 km from ground, in the polar, auroral and medium latitude regions. The SuperDARN and DCE scientific objectives span from fundamental plasma physics to space weather in the framework of Sun-Earth relations. Italy participates in the SuperDARN international network also with the Dome C North radar(DCN), installed at the Concordia station in January 2019 and operative since then.

The knowledge of properties and quantitative measurement of solid precipitation in Antarctica is of fundamental importance as precipitation represents the main input of Antarctic ice sheet mass, the variations of which have a direct and non-negligible effect on the average level of the oceans at global scale. Characterization and quantification of the precipitation is crucial in defining and validating global climate models and numerical weather prediction models, as well as anchoring and validating space-borne remote sensing estimates from missions like CloudSAT and EarthCARE. A snow and cloud microphysics observatory has been set up at the Italian Antarctic station Mario Zucchelli (MZS), integrating the pre-existing instrumentation for weather measurements. In particular, a 24-GHz vertical pointing Doppler radar, the METEK's Micro Rain Radar 2 (MRR-2), and a laser disdrometer, the OTT Parsivel, have been integrated with the advanced weather stations, radiosoundings and the ceilometer already present at MZS. The synergy between the set of instruments allows for characterizing precipitation and studying properties of Antarctic precipitation such as dimension, shape, fall behavior, particle number density, particles size distribution, particles terminal velocity, reflectivity factor and information on their vertical extent. APP started as a four-year project in July 2017, covering the Special Observation Period (SOP) in the Southern Hemisphere of Year of Polar Predicition (YOPP) period. APP can provide specific measurements for precipitation occurring over the Antarctic coast at high temporal resolution, in particular specific snow products such as snow rate, snow depth and their water equivalent. In November 2023 the observatory received an additional instrument, the Thies Clima 3D Stereo imaging disdrometer, which was previously installed for one year in Italy for testing, at the Casale Calore (AQ) meteorological observation site from the University of L'Aquila. The research team of the first two years was coordinated by Nicoletta Roberto, with operational units at the Rome unit of the CNR-ISAC (Luca Baldini, Elisa Adirosi, Stefano Dietrich) and at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Bologna (Rolando Rizzi, Federico Porcù, Tiziano Maestri, Alessandro Bracci). From 2020 the coordination of the project passed to Luca Baldini (CNR-ISAC) and the work team was extended with the research fellows Giacomo Roversi and Sabina Angeloni.

The HF radar denominated Dome C North (DCN) emits pulses of HF waves (8–20 MHz) which are refracted in the ionosphere and can be back-scattered by field aligned decameter scale irregularities of the electron density at distances ranging from 180 to 3550 km from the radar and at heights between 100 and 400 km. The radar signals are steered in 16 emission beams, separated by 3.3 degrees, in an azimuthal interval of 52 degrees, usually swept in 2 minutes. The signals are emitted according to multi-pulse sequences that allow the real-time acquisition of the autocorrelation function of the back scatter echoes, from which the reflected power, the VD Doppler velocity of the irregularities, and the spectral width can be calculated for each distance-azimuth cell. VD coincides with the velocity of the plasma along the line of sight. DCN is part of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). In SuperDARN, pairs of radars, typically located at 2000 km distance and oriented so that their beams cross each other over the region to be studied, are used to get the velocity vector in two dimensions. DCN forms a common-volume pair with the SuperDARN Zhongshan radar (China). SuperDARN radars are devoted to the study of ionosphere, between 100 and 400 km from ground, in the polar, auroral and medium latitude regions. The sscientific objectives of SuperDARN and DCN span from fundamental plasma physics to space weather, in the framework of Sun-Earth relations. Italy participates in the SuperDARN international network also with the Dome C East (DCE) radar,installed at Concordia in 2013 and operative since then.

The main goal of the project is the identification of well-characterized case studies aimed at a radiative self-consistency experiment of ice clouds and in mixed phase on the Antarctic Plateau, as well as the improvement of current spectral patterns in the far-infrared region. This can be achieved through the synergistic use of various measurement instruments operating in different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and installed at the Concordia base, particularly at the Physics shelter. The infrared radiation emitted by the atmosphere and clouds is measured by the Fourier transform spectroradiometer REFIR-PAD (Radiation Explorer in Far Infrared - Prototype for Applications and Development) operating at Concordia since 2012 inside the DoCTOR PNRA project by Dr. Giovanni Bianchini (https://www.pnra.aq/it/project/330/dome-c-tropospheric-observer-osservatorio-troposferico-dome-c). The position and phase of clouds is estimated by the backscattering and depolarization LIDAR active since 2008. The particle size distribution can be estimated by an ICE- CAMERA, i.e., a kind of optical scanner that collects precipitating ice crystals on the shelter roof. As of the 2018-2019 campaign, a 24 GHz weather radar (Micro Rain Radar, MMR) operating continuously has been installed on the roof of Physics, which can provide an estimate of the precipitation rate of ice crystals and the falling velocities of those crystals. From these measurements, efforts are also being made to estimate the ice content in the case of precipitating ice clouds. Finally, during the last 2019-2020 campaign, a HALO-CAMERA was also installed, which can provide an estimate of the shape of ice crystals that can be used as a priori information in transfer models radiative suitable for simulating the effect of clouds. In order to complete the radiative closure (or self-consistency) experiment, the idea is to use the values of the parameters of the precipitating ice clouds, i.e., optical thickness and effective diameter, obtained from the inversion of the spectra produced by REFIR-PAD, to characterize the size distribution of the ice crystals and use the latter to calculate the reflectivity at the MRR radar wavelength, i.e., 24 GHz. The calculation of reflectivity obviously depends on the type of particles (habit) that are assumed, so the inversion procedure of the spectra produced by REFIR-PAD is repeated assuming different types of particles, thus using different optical property databases depending on whether aggregates, bullet rosettes, hexagonal columns, platelets or hollow columns are used. Consequently, the same habit assumptions will have to be made for the calculation of radar reflectivity. The reflectivity obtained can at this point be compared with the experimental reflectivity measured by MRR. Data analysis was carried out by Dr. Alessandro Bracci of ISAC-CNR and Giacomo Roversi of Ca' Foscari University of Venice, both belonging to the group led by Dr. Luca Baldini. Unfortunately, the very small size of the crystals at Concordia, due to the extremely low temperatures and very low humidity values, make it difficult to detect many of these crystals. For this reason, an initial work involved precisely the selection of optimal cases that could be analyzed. The work appears to be still in progress although positive results have already been obtained from the retrieval products of REFIR-PAD, which have allowed the estimation of the reflectivity at 24 GHz, which has been compared ,in the cases of best radar signal, with that measured by MRR obtaining a good agreement. The backscattering signal allows to derive the top and bottom elevations of the cloud to be fixed in the simulation of the radiative transfer. The depolarization signal makes it possible to discriminate the presence of ice, as water droplets do not produce depolarization signal. The lidar data, along with halo-camera and ice-camera data, are provided by Dr. Massimo Del Guasta.

The research program aims to continue accurate measurements of surface radiative fluxes downwelling and upwelling at Dome-C, within the network Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN https://bsrn.awi.de/), in order to provide broadband measurements of solar radiation short wave (in the three downwelling components direct, diffuse, global and in the global reflected fluxes) and thermal radiation (emitted from the atmosphere and from the surface). These measurements performed throughout the year provide complete information of the radiative regime in the East Antarctic Plateau, as well as its seasonal and interannual variability, and the radiative fluxes are an important input parameter for both the mass balance and regional climate models. In addition, the surface irradiance datasets are required to validate and calibrate at least 10-11 different satellite observations.

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