10/11/2025
Professor Paul Zieger has been awarded 4.33 million SEK from the Swedish Research Council (VR) to investigate if microplastics can influence Arctic clouds and climate.
Microplastic particles have been found everywhere, from busy cities to remote polar regions but we still don’t know how they behave inside clouds. This project will collect cloud particles at the Zeppelin Observatory on Svalbard, identify any microplastics present, and test whether they can act as tiny “seeds” for ice formation.
Because clouds play a crucial role in how quickly the Arctic warms, even small changes in cloud behaviour could have big consequences.
This research will help improve climate models and deepen our understanding of how pollution affects Earth’s most vulnerable regions.
A huge congratulations to the team!
