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Organization | Arctic Research Centre | History
History of the Observatory
The beginning of meteorological activity at Sodankylä dates back to the mid-nineteenth century: Societas Scientarum Fennica founded the first weather station at Sodankylä in 1858.The next milestone was participation in the first Geophysical Year in 1882-83, when a group of visiting scientists at Sodankylä operated a modern magnetic-meteorological observatory. It wasn´t untill 1908, however, when a continuous timeseries of Sodankylä temperatures begun, first at the village about 7 km north from the present location and from 1914 at the present observatory area. As one of the first stations in the Arctic Sodankylä meterological observatory started radiosoundings in October 1, 1949. Solar radiatiation measurements started during the third Geophysical year 1957/58 and first air quality measurements in early 70's.
From 1987 on the main research topic has been the Arctic ozone layer.The observatory has quickly become a base for both national and international research in this field. The observatory has been visited by many research groups from Europe and North-America. It has been established, that the temperature of ozone layer in January-March period will largerly control the rate of ozone destruction: cold winters are followed by large ozone loss whereas after mild winters the loss is smaller. This behavior is linked to the formation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds in extremely cold circumstances , which in the presence of elevated chlorine levels will greatly catalyze ozone destruction.
Photos on the right:
- top: the old main building in summer,
- next one: the old main building in winter,
- next one: the new main building outside,
- bottom: the new main building inside (the lobby).
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