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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INTAROS (Integrated Arctic observation system)

Teaser

Summary

It is well documented that climate change in the Arctic is in progress with wide implications for the Arctic environment, its ecosystems, and its communities. Climate change already has significant societal consequences not only in the Arctic region, but globally, through melting of ice on land and sea, reduction of snow cover and permafrost as well as changes in weather patterns with increased risks for natural hazards. To meet the challenges posed by climate change, we need improved and precise observing systems to enable better-informed decisions and better-documented processes within key sectors (e.g. local communities, shipping, tourism, fishing), in order to strengthen the societal and economic role of the Arctic region and support the EU strategy for the Arctic and related maritime and environmental policies. The overall objective of INTAROS is to build an efficient integrated Arctic Observation System (iAOS) by extending, improving and unifying existing systems in the different regions of the Arctic. An integrated Arctic Observation System needs to cover atmosphere, ocean and terrestrial observations at appropriate temporal and spatial scales and resolution according to user requirements. The Copernicus programme provides large amounts of open data from the Sentinel satellites. Therefore, INTAROS has focus on the in situ component of the observing system, which is much less developed and has large gaps in the data coverage compared to the satellite data.

Work performed

WP1: Requirements and Strategy for Pan-Arctic Observing System. INTAROS has been presented at â‰ˆ 150 meetings, workshops and conferences in order to establish collaboration with other projects, organisations and stakeholder groups involved in Arctic observing systems. Such collaboration is required in order to build an integrated Arctic Observing System covering the pan-Arctic region. This includes European projects, in particular Copernicus services and European Space Agency providing satellite data, and projects in USA, Canada, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

WP2: Exploitation of existing observing systems. A major effort has been devoted to design and implement an online survey to collect information needed for the assessment and cataloguing of the existing Arctic in situ observing systems, in situ data collections, and satellite products from multiple domains (atmosphere, marine, terrestrial, cryospheric, biological data). The outcome of the survey was used to assess the present observing systems and data sets provided by the consortium members. The results of WP2 have attain significant interest by SAON members, the Arctic Data Committee and other participants in the Arctic Science Summit Week and Arctic Observing Summit in Davos in June 2018.

WP3: Enhancement of multidisciplinary in situ observing systems. The main efforts have been to prepare for the 2018 field work activities will take place in Greenland (both coastal areas and on the ice sheet), in Baffin Bay, north of Svalbard, in the Fram Strait and Kongsfjorden as well as in the central Arctic with icebreakers Oden and Xuelong. In addition, data will be collected at terrestrial/atmospheric observing sites in Canada, Alaska, Finland and Russia. The first set of observations were obtained in these area in 2017.

WP4. Enhance community-based observing programs for participatory research and capacity-building. A total of 30 existing community-based observing programs across the eight Arctic countries have been surveyed and analysed. Two workshops in Fairbanks and Quebec City were co-organised by INTAROS. A web-library of Arctic community-based observing tools has been compiled and disseminated, to our knowledge the first of its kind. New methods and approaches to environmental monitoring have been discussed with decision-makers in Svalbard and Greenland.

WP5: Data integration and management. The first analysis of the system requirements and architecture for integration of multidisciplinary and distributed data repositories into the iAOS was completed. The analysis focused on data processing platform, data discovery & access, data analyses algorithms & toolkits, and user portal. A first prototype of processing service integration was established based on the Developer Cloud Sandbox solution & support activities with an implementation of a demo service using the RGeoStat toolkit.

WP6: Applications of iAOS towards Stakeholders. The workpackage has not started.
WP7: Dissemination and outreach. Work has started to disseminate the ongoing activities in the project and to inform and engage key user and stakeholder communities. A public website has been established where high-level information about the project is provided.

Final results

In WP1 Pan-Arctic collaboration has been established with major programmes, projects and institutions in Europe, North America, Asia working with Arctic observing systems for atmosphere, ocean and terrestrial sciences. In WP2 an extensive web-based survey has been conducted to assess existing in situ observing systems, in situ data sets, and satellite products for the Arctic. The assessment includes data collection, data products, spatial and temporal coverage, technological readiness, accessibility, metadata, documentation, delivery chains and operational status. In WP3 the first set of experiments were conducted in several Arctic locations where improved instruments and platforms were used for collection of atmosphere, ocean and terrestrial data. In WP4 existing community-based monitoring (CBM) programs have been analysed to identify capabilities, best practices and challenges across the Pan-Arctic region. In WP5 the system requirements and architecture for the integration of multidisciplinary and distributed data repositories have been completed. In WP7 a number of dissemination and outreach activities have been conducted.

Expected results until the end of the project. It is expected that INTAROS will improve the pan-Arctic collaboration in development of Arctic observing systems. To achieve this a multidisciplinary Pan-Arctic Observing Forum will be established with participation from high-level policy makers, funding agencies, stakeholders and research communities. The Forum will work together with Sustainble Arctic Observing Network (SAON) and Arctic Observing Summit (AOS). A Roadmap for such systems will be provided. In the thematic areas of INTAROS (atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial, as well as natural hazards and community-based monitoring) the observing technology and capacity will be improved. Observing platforms such as land stations, ships, aircraft and autonomous platforms will enhance their capacity to measure more variables and cover larger areas. Collaboration between community-based observing systems and scientific observing systems will be developed to be mutually beneficial for both sides. Furthermore, INTAROS will develop good data management practices including data governance framework in collaboration with the Arctic Data Committee under SAON and IASC.

Impact of the project in the period. The project has provided the following impact: Improved collaboration across the Pan-Arctic region, generation of spin-off projects, strengthen the work SAON and Arctic Council working groups, engagement with national ministries and governmental agencies, attained high profile by EU and contributor to the Arctic Science Ministerial in 2018.