There are major uncertainties in Earth system science and in understanding land–atmosphere interactions and feedbacks in relation to the boreal forests of the Arctic regions and High Mountain Asia (HMA). Related areas of scientific interest include climate change, air quality, biodiversity loss, environmental risks such as forest fires, the use of natural resources and the effects of this on the environment, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The availability of big data, acquired both on the ground and from satellite observations, and the further development of high-quality research infrastructure and in situ observing stations are seen as major issues that need to be addressed in relation to the research areas listed above. The most urgent risks related to atmospheric and land systems are changing climate – air quality interactions, air pollution, changing monsoon dynamics, land degradation, and the melting of glaciers in HMA. Finding solutions to these problems will contribute to addressing the global sustainability issues described in the UN SDGs, especially the SDG-13 climate actions.
The availability of comprehensive ground-based observations together with Earth observation data is a fundamental asset. The Digital Belt and Road (DBAR) (http://www.dbeltroad.org/) and the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) (www.atm.helsinki.fi/peex) are multi-disciplinary, multi-scale, multi-component research programmes. These programmes include monitoring of the ecological environment as well as studies of urbanization, cultural heritage, coastal zones, and the cold Arctic regions in support of the sustainable development of the Arctic boreal region and High Mountain Asia (HMA). In this special issue, we introduce the research data and research infrastructure relevant to these regions from DBAR and PEEX programmes. Also, this DBAR–PEEX special issue is open to all submissions that fit within the relevant research areas.
Potential topics include (but are not limited to) the following:
- air quality, atmospheric composition, atmospheric aerosols
- environmental risks, forest fires, biodiversity loss
- precipitation, climate and environmental change
- snow and ice over land and Arctic Ocean
- Carbon Neutrality
- US SDGs for Arctic and high altitude and high latitude cold regions in Eurasia and Arctic
- research data asset and research infrastructures
