Description of research and teaching

Black carbon (BC) is globally the second most important climate forcing agent and its climate impacts are amplified in the Arctic where its deposition hastens the melt of snow and ice. My research focuses on discerning the historical BC deposition trends in the Arctic from glacier ice and lake sediment cores during the last ca. 200 years. I use analytical methods such as chemothermal-oxidation, thermal-optical methods and chemical extraction. Moreover, I distinguish the emission sources of BC by dual-carbon isotope measurements (14C and δ13C) of the extracted BC, which separates e.g. biomass vs. fossil fuel, and solid vs. liquid fossil fuel combustion sources of BC.

I actively strive towards producing research results that are applicable in society and policy making. I belong to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) Expert Group on Short-Lived Climate Forcers (SLCFs) that is composing a new scientific assessment on state of science on Arctic SLCFs by the 2021 Arctic Council ministerial meeting, as tasked by AMAP.