Hypothesis:

Changes in atmospheric bromine concentrations and optically active ocean components have relevant feedbacks with Arctic amplification on different spatial and temporal scales through radiative forcing and oxidative capacity.

Studies will focus on the following central questions:

• What is the evolution of the key quantities observed (phytoplankton, CDOM, ocean radiation, BrO) over the last years, which were characterized by rapid Arctic warming?
• How does the changing ocean surface BGC impact atmospheric radiative forcing via indirect effects (aerosol pre-cursor emissions and carbon export) combined with its direct feedback to ocean radiation?
• How do changing tropospheric bromine concentrations impact oxidative capacity (O3 concentrations) and thereby radiative forcing?

This project contributes to the topic of Arctic amplification by evaluating the contribution of ocean surface BGC and halogen release to atmospheric radiative forcing in a changing Arctic (SQ1 and SQ3).

Achievements phase I

In C03 first consistent, long-term, and multi-sensor data sets of phytoplankton groups (PG) and BrO over the Arctic were obtained. The time series revealed changes over the last ten years towards smaller sized and increased growth of PG, but reduced carbon export in the Fram Strait (Engel et al., 2019). Furthermore, a close link between a bromine explosion event and polar cyclone development was discovered (Blechschmidt et al., 2016). A first observational evidence of a large IO plume emitted from a volcanic eruption in Alaska was revealed (Schönhardt et al., 2017). A new retrieval algorithm of BrO (Seo et al., 2019) has been developed for the new TROPOMI onboard the S5P satellite. In addition, the first 24 years date record of tropospheric BrO over the Arctic was created and first analyses undertaken.

Role within (AC)³

Project Posters

Phase III Evaluation poster 2023	Phase II Evaluation poster 2019	Phase I Evaluation poster 2015

Project Members

Publications

2026

Bracher, A., Xi, H., von Appen, W., Mehdipour, E., Metfies, K., McPherson, R., Zeising, M., and Nöthig, E. , 2026: Resolving the interannual variability of phytoplankton community composition in Fram strait using ship-based high-frequency spectrophotometric measurements from 2015 to 2024. Deep Sea Res. Part II Top. Stud. Oceanogr., pages 105568, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2025.105568

Leon-Marcos, A., van Pinxteren, M., Zeppenfeld, S., Zeising, M., Bracher, A., Oziel, L., Tegen, I., and Heinold, B. , 2026: Thirty years of arctic primary marine organic aerosols: patterns, seasonal dynamics, and trends (1990–2019). Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26(2):1109–1144, doi:10.5194/acp-26-1109-2026

2025

Bracher, A., Banks, A. C., Xi, H., Dessailly, D., Gossn, J., Lebreton, C., Röttgers, R., Kwiatkowska, E., Chaikalis, S., Mehdipour, E., Pitta, E., Soppa, M. A., Wevers, J., and Zeri, C. , August 2025: Assessment of OLCI absorption coefficients for non-water components across all optical water classes. Front. Remote Sens., doi:10.3389/frsen.2025.1545664

Leon-Marcos, A., Zeising, M., van Pinxteren, M., Zeppenfeld, S., Bracher, A., Barbaro, E., Engel, A., Feltracco, M., Tegen, I., and Heinold, B. , July 2025: Modelling emission and transport of key components of primary marine organic aerosol using the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM6.3-HAM2.3. Geosci. Model Dev., 18(13):4183–4213, doi:10.5194/gmd-18-4183-2025

Zeising, M. Transparent Exopolymer Particles in the Surface Arctic Ocean by Ocean Biogeochemistry Modeling. PhD thesis, Universität Potsdam, May 2025. doi:10.26092/elib/4387.

Sun, X., Brewin, R. J., Sathyendranath, S., Dall'Olmo, G., Antoine, D., Barlow, R., Bracher, A., Kheireddine, M., Li, M., Raitsos, D. E., Shen, F., Tilstone, G. H., and Vellucci, V. , 2025: Coupling ecological concepts with an ocean-colour model: Parameterisation and forward modelling. Rem Sens Env., 316:114487, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2024.114487

Xi, H., Bretagnon, M., Mehdipour, E., Demaria, J., Mangin, A., and Bracher, A. , 2025: Consistent long-term observations of surface phytoplankton functional types from space. State Planet, 6-osr9:7, doi:10.5194/sp-6-osr9-7-2025

Falk, S., Reißig, L., Zilker, B., Richter, A., and Sinnhuber, B. , 2025: Challenges in simulating ozone depletion events in the Arctic boundary layer: a case study using ECHAM/MESSy for spring 2019/2020. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25(22):15653–15682, doi:10.5194/acp-25-15653-2025

Cherkasheva, A., Manurov, R., Kowalczuk, P., Loginova, A. N., Zabłocka, M., and Bracher, A. , 2025: Adaptation of global primary production model to the Greenland Sea conditions: parameterization and monitoring for 1998-2022. Front. Mar. Sci., doi:10.3389/fmars.2024.1491180

2024

Rabe, B., Cox, C. J., Fang, Y., Goessling, H., Granskog, M. A., Hoppmann, M., Hutchings, J. K., Krumpen, T., Kuznetsov, I., Lei, R., Li, T., Maslowski, W., Nicolaus, M., Perovich, D., Persson, O., Regnery, J., Rigor, I., Shupe, M. D., Sokolov, V., Spreen, G., Stanton, T., Watkins, D. M., Blockley, E., Buenger, H. J., Cole, S., Fong, A., Haapala, J., Heuzé, C., Hoppe, C. J. M., Janout, M., Jutila, A., Katlein, C., Krishfield, R., Lin, L., Ludwig, V., Morgenstern, A., O'Brien, J., Zurita, A. Q., Rackow, T., Riemann-Campe, K., Rohde, J., Shaw, W., Smolyanitsky, V., Solomon, A., Sperling, A., Tao, R., Toole, J., Tsamados, M., Zhu, J., and Zuo, G. , May 2024: The MOSAiC Distributed Network: Observing the Coupled Arctic System with Multidisciplinary, Coordinated Platforms. Elem Sci Anth, 12(1):00103, doi:10.1525/elementa.2023.00103

Weiß, J. F., Von Appen, W., Niehoff, B., Hildebrand, N., Graeve, M., Neuhaus, S., Bracher, A., Nöthig, E., and Metfies, K. , April 2024: Unprecedented Insights into Extents of Biological Responses to Physical Forcing in an Arctic Sub-Mesoscale Filament by Combining High-Resolution Measurement Approaches. Sci. Rep., 14(1):8192, doi:10.1038/s41598-024-58511-y

2023

Zeppenfeld, S., Van Pinxteren, M., Hartmann, M., Zeising, M., Bracher, A., and Herrmann, H. , December 2023: Marine Carbohydrates in Arctic Aerosol Particles and Fog – Diversity of Oceanic Sources and Atmospheric Transformations. Atmospheric Chem. Phys., 23(24):15561–15587, doi:10.5194/acp-23-15561-2023

Chen, Y., Liu, S., Zhu, L., Seo, S., Richter, A., Li, X., Ding, A., Sun, W., Shu, L., Wang, X., Valks, P., Hendrick, F., Koenig, T. K., Volkamer, R., Bai, B., Wang, D., Pu, D., Sun, S., Li, J., Zuo, X., Fu, W., Li, Y., Zhang, P., Yang, X., and Fu, T. , December 2023: Global Observations of Tropospheric Bromine Monoxide (BrO) Columns From TROPOMI. J. Geophys. Res. Atmospheres, 128(24):e2023JD039091, doi:10.1029/2023JD039091

Zilker, B., Richter, A., Blechschmidt, A., Von Der Gathen, P., Bougoudis, I., Seo, S., Bösch, T., and Burrows, J. P. , September 2023: Investigation of Meteorological Conditions and BrO during Ozone Depletion Events in Ny-Ålesund between 2010 and 2021. Atmospheric Chem. Phys., 23(17):9787–9814, doi:10.5194/acp-23-9787-2023

Xi, H., Bretagnon, M., Losa, S. N., Brotas, V., Gomes, M., Peeken, I., Alvarado, L. M. A., Mangin, A., and Bracher, A. , September 2023: Satellite Monitoring of Surface Phytoplankton Functional Types in the Atlantic Ocean over 20 Years (2002–2021). State Planet, 1-osr7:1–13, doi:10.5194/sp-1-osr7-5-2023

Gürses, Ö., Oziel, L., Karakuş, O., Sidorenko, D., Völker, C., Ye, Y., Zeising, M., Butzin, M., and Hauck, J. , August 2023: Ocean Biogeochemistry in the Coupled Ocean–Sea Ice–Biogeochemistry Model FESOM2.1–REcoM3. Geosci. Model Dev., 16(16):4883–4936, doi:10.5194/gmd-16-4883-2023

Zeising, M., Oziel, L., Gürses, Ö., Hauck, J., Heinold, B., Losa, S., Thoms, S., Pinxteren, M. V., Völker, C., Zeppenfeld, S., and Bracher, A. Wide-Spread Occurrence and Increasing Trend of Biogenic Aerosol Precursors in the Arctic Ocean Simulated by an Ocean Biogeochemical Model. May 2023. doi:10.22541/essoar.168332181.16821948/v1.

Ahmed, S., Thomas, J. L., Angot, H., Dommergue, A., Archer, S. D., Bariteau, L., Beck, I., Benavent, N., Blechschmidt, A., Blomquist, B., Boyer, M., Christensen, J. H., Dahlke, S., Dastoor, A., Helmig, D., Howard, D., Jacobi, H., Jokinen, T., Lapere, R., Laurila, T., Quéléver, L. L. J., Richter, A., Ryjkov, A., Mahajan, A. S., Marelle, L., Pfaffhuber, K. A., Posman, K., Rinke, A., Saiz-Lopez, A., Schmale, J., Skov, H., Steffen, A., Stupple, G., Stutz, J., Travnikov, O., and Zilker, B. , May 2023: Modelling the Coupled Mercury-Halogen-Ozone Cycle in the Central Arctic during Spring. Elem Sci Anth, 11(1):00129, doi:10.1525/elementa.2022.00129

Gabarró, C., Hughes, N., Wilkinson, J., Bertino, L., Bracher, A., Diehl, T., Dierking, W., Gonzalez-Gambau, V., Lavergne, T., Madurell, T., Malnes, E., and Wagner, P. M. , February 2023: Improving Satellite-Based Monitoring of the Polar Regions: Identification of Research and Capacity Gaps. Front. Remote Sens., 4:952091, doi:10.3389/frsen.2023.952091

2022

Valente, A., Sathyendranath, S., Brotas, V., Groom, S., Grant, M., Jackson, T., Chuprin, A., Taberner, M., Airs, R., Antoine, D., Arnone, R., Balch, W. M., Barker, K., Barlow, R., Bélanger, S., Berthon, J., Beşiktepe, Ş., Borsheim, Y., Bracher, A., Brando, V., Brewin, R. J. W., Canuti, E., Chavez, F. P., Cianca, A., Claustre, H., Clementson, L., Crout, R., Ferreira, A., Freeman, S., Frouin, R., García-Soto, C., Gibb, S. W., Goericke, R., Gould, R., Guillocheau, N., Hooker, S. B., Hu, C., Kahru, M., Kampel, M., Klein, H., Kratzer, S., Kudela, R., Ledesma, J., Lohrenz, S., Loisel, H., Mannino, A., Martinez-Vicente, V., Matrai, P., McKee, D., Mitchell, B. G., Moisan, T., Montes, E., Muller-Karger, F., Neeley, A., Novak, M., O'Dowd, L., Ondrusek, M., Platt, T., Poulton, A. J., Repecaud, M., Röttgers, R., Schroeder, T., Smyth, T., Smythe-Wright, D., Sosik, H. M., Thomas, C., Thomas, R., Tilstone, G., Tracana, A., Twardowski, M., Vellucci, V., Voss, K., Werdell, J., Wernand, M., Wojtasiewicz, B., Wright, S., and Zibordi, G. , December 2022: A Compilation of Global Bio-Optical in Situ Data for Ocean Colour Satellite Applications – Version Three. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14(12):5737–5770, doi:10.5194/essd-14-5737-2022

Álvarez, E., Losa, S. N., Bracher, A., Thoms, S., and Völker, C. , November 2022: Phytoplankton Light Absorption Impacted by Photoprotective Carotenoids in a Global Ocean Spectrally-Resolved Biogeochemistry Model. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 14(11):e2022MS003126, doi:10.1029/2022MS003126

Benavent, N., Mahajan, A. S., Li, Q., Cuevas, C. A., Schmale, J., Angot, H., Jokinen, T., Quéléver, L. L. J., Blechschmidt, A., Zilker, B., Richter, A., Serna, J. A., Garcia-Nieto, D., Fernandez, R. P., Skov, H., Dumitrascu, A., Simões Pereira, P., Abrahamsson, K., Bucci, S., Duetsch, M., Stohl, A., Beck, I., Laurila, T., Blomquist, B., Howard, D., Archer, S. D., Bariteau, L., Helmig, D., Hueber, J., Jacobi, H., Posman, K., Dada, L., Daellenbach, K. R., and Saiz-Lopez, A. , October 2022: Substantial Contribution of Iodine to Arctic Ozone Destruction. Nat. Geosci., 15(10):770–773, doi:10.1038/s41561-022-01018-w

Bougoudis, I., Blechschmidt, A., Richter, A., Seo, S., and Burrows, J. P. , May 2022: Simulating Tropospheric BrO in the Arctic Using an Artificial Neural Network. Atmos. Environ., 276:119032, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119032

Oelker, J., Losa, S. N., Richter, A., and Bracher, A. , March 2022: TROPOMI-Retrieved Underwater Light Attenuation in Three Spectral Regions in the Ultraviolet and Blue. Front. Mar. Sci., 9:787992, doi:10.3389/fmars.2022.787992

2021

Xi, H., Losa, S. N., Mangin, A., Garnesson, P., Bretagnon, M., Demaria, J., Soppa, M. A., Hembise Fanton d'Andon, O., and Bracher, A. , May 2021: Global Chlorophyll \empha Concentrations of Phytoplankton Functional Types With Detailed Uncertainty Assessment Using Multisensor Ocean Color and Sea Surface Temperature Satellite Products. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 126(5):e2020JC017127, doi:10.1029/2020JC017127

2020

Yang, X., Blechschmidt, A., Bognar, K., McClure-Begley, A., Morris, S., Petropavlovskikh, I., Richter, A., Skov, H., Strong, K., Tarasick, D. W., Uttal, T., Vestenius, M., and Zhao, X. , December 2020: Pan-Arctic Surface Ozone: Modelling vs. Measurements. Atmospheric Chem. Phys., 20(24):15937–15967, doi:10.5194/acp-20-15937-2020

Pefanis, V., Losa, S. N., Losch, M., Janout, M. A., and Bracher, A. , November 2020: Amplified Arctic Surface Warming and Sea Ice Loss Due to Phytoplankton and Colored Dissolved Material. Geophys. Res. Lett., 47(21):e2020GL088795, doi:10.1029/2020GL088795

Seo, S., Richter, A., Blechschmidt, A., Bougoudis, I., and Burrows, J. P. , October 2020: Spatial Distribution of Enhanced BrO and Its Relation to Meteorological Parameters in Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Regions. Atmospheric Chem. Phys., 20(20):12285–12312, doi:10.5194/acp-20-12285-2020

Bougoudis, I., Blechschmidt, A., Richter, A., Seo, S., Burrows, J. P., Theys, N., and Rinke, A. , October 2020: Long-Term Time Series of Arctic Tropospheric BrO Derived from UV–VIS Satellite Remote Sensing and Its Relation to First-Year Sea Ice. Atmospheric Chem. Phys., 20(20):11869–11892, doi:10.5194/acp-20-11869-2020

Nöthig, E., Ramondenc, S., Haas, A., Hehemann, L., Walter, A., Bracher, A., Lalande, C., Metfies, K., Peeken, I., Bauerfeind, E., and Boetius, A. , June 2020: Summertime Chlorophyll a and Particulate Organic Carbon Standing Stocks in Surface Waters of the Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean (1991–2015). Front. Mar. Sci., 7:350, doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00350

Pradhan, H. K., Völker, C., Losa, S. N., Bracher, A., and Nerger, L. , February 2020: Global Assimilation of Ocean-Color Data of Phytoplankton Functional Types: Impact of Different Data Sets. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 125(2):e2019JC015586, doi:10.1029/2019JC015586

2019

Zeppenfeld, S., Van Pinxteren, M., Hartmann, M., Bracher, A., Stratmann, F., and Herrmann, H. , August 2019: Glucose as a Potential Chemical Marker for Ice Nucleating Activity in Arctic Seawater and Melt Pond Samples. Environ. Sci. Technol., 53(15):8747–8756, doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b01469

Fernandez, R. P., Carmona-Balea, A., Cuevas, C. A., Barrera, J. A., Kinnison, D. E., Lamarque, J., Blaszczak-Boxe, C., Kim, K., Choi, W., Hay, T., Blechschmidt, A., Schönhardt, A., Burrows, J. P., and Saiz-Lopez, A. , July 2019: Modeling the Sources and Chemistry of Polar Tropospheric Halogens (Cl, Br, and I) Using the CAM-Chem Global Chemistry-Climate Model. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 11(7):2259–2289, doi:10.1029/2019MS001655

Álvarez, E., Thoms, S., Bracher, A., Liu, Y., and Völker, C. , July 2019: Modeling Photoprotection at Global Scale: The Relative Role of Nonphotosynthetic Pigments, Physiological State, and Species Composition. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles, 33(7):904–926, doi:10.1029/2018GB006101

Oelker, J., Richter, A., Dinter, T., Rozanov, V. V., Burrows, J. P., and Bracher, A. , June 2019: Global Diffuse Attenuation Derived from Vibrational Raman Scattering Detected in Hyperspectral Backscattered Satellite Spectra. Opt. Express, 27(12):A829, doi:10.1364/OE.27.00A829

Soppa, M. A., Pefanis, V., Hellmann, S., Losa, S. N., Hölemann, J., Martynov, F., Heim, B., Janout, M. A., Dinter, T., Rozanov, V., and Bracher, A. , May 2019: Assessing the Influence of Water Constituents on the Radiative Heating of Laptev Sea Shelf Waters. Front. Mar. Sci., 6:221, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00221

Seo, S., Richter, A., Blechschmidt, A., Bougoudis, I., and Burrows, J. P. , May 2019: First High-Resolution BrO Column Retrievals from TROPOMI. Atmospheric Meas. Tech., 12(5):2913–2932, doi:10.5194/amt-12-2913-2019

Engel, A., Bracher, A., Dinter, T., Endres, S., Grosse, J., Metfies, K., Peeken, I., Piontek, J., Salter, I., and Nöthig, E. , April 2019: Inter-Annual Variability of Organic Carbon Concentration in the Eastern Fram Strait During Summer (2009–2017). Front. Mar. Sci., 6:187, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00187

Liu, Y., Boss, E., Chase, A., Xi, H., Zhang, X., Röttgers, R., Pan, Y., and Bracher, A. , February 2019: Retrieval of Phytoplankton Pigments from Underway Spectrophotometry in the Fram Strait. Remote Sens., 11(3):318, doi:10.3390/rs11030318

Pradhan, H. K., Völker, C., Losa, S. N., Bracher, A., and Nerger, L. , January 2019: Assimilation of Global Total Chlorophyll OC-CCI Data and Its Impact on Individual Phytoplankton Fields. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 124(1):470–490, doi:10.1029/2018JC014329

2018

Liu, Y., Röttgers, R., Ramírez-Pérez, M., Dinter, T., Steinmetz, F., Nöthig, E., Hellmann, S., Wiegmann, S., and Bracher, A. , July 2018: Underway Spectrophotometry in the Fram Strait (European Arctic Ocean): A Highly Resolved Chlorophyll a Data Source for Complementing Satellite Ocean Color. Opt. Express, 26(14):A678, doi:10.1364/OE.26.00A678

Liu, Y., Röttgers, R., Ramírez-Pérez, M., Dinter, T., Steinmetz, F., Nöthig, E., Hellmann, S., Wiegmann, S., and Bracher, A. Absorption Line Height and Chl-a during POLARSTERN Cruises PS93.2 and PS99.2 from Underway Spectrophotometry and Discrete Water Samples. 2018. doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.885631.

2017

Losa, S. N., Soppa, M. A., Dinter, T., Wolanin, A., Brewin, R. J. W., Bricaud, A., Oelker, J., Peeken, I., Gentili, B., Rozanov, V., and Bracher, A. , July 2017: Synergistic Exploitation of Hyper- and Multi-Spectral Precursor Sentinel Measurements to Determine Phytoplankton Functional Types (SynSenPFT). Front. Mar. Sci., 4:203, doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00203

Rozanov, V., Dinter, T., Rozanov, A., Wolanin, A., Bracher, A., and Burrows, J. , June 2017: Radiative Transfer Modeling through Terrestrial Atmosphere and Ocean Accounting for Inelastic Processes: Software Package SCIATRAN. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transf., 194:65–85, doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2017.03.009

Losa, S. N., Soppa, M. A., Dinter, T., Wolanin, A., Brewin, R. J. W., Bricaud, A., Oelker, J., Peeken, I., Gentili, B., Rozanov, V. V., and Bracher, A. Global Data Sets of Chlorophyll a Concentration for Diatoms, Coccolithophores (Haptophytes) and Cyanobacteria Obtained from in Situ Observations and Satellite Retrievals. 2017. doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.873210.

2016

Schönhardt, A., Richter, A., Theys, N., and Burrows, J. P. Space Based Observation of Volcanic Iodine Monoxide. July 2016. doi:10.5194/acp-2016-619.