Technologies and collaboration for sustained Arctic Ocean Observing Systems (AOOS)

The AOOS project is a planning and collaboration project under the Arktis 2030 programme, with the goal to strengthening the Norwegian role in development of ocean observations in the Arctic. This report presents a snapshot of strategies, programmes and organizations adressing ocean observations in the Arctic, both in Norway and internationally. Ocean observation is important because it provides data which are important for climate, environment, food supply and other societal benefit areas on global, regional and local scale. Ocean observation in the Arctic is on the agenda of major international actors, in particular 1) The Arctic Council and its member states, organizations and working groups; 2) The European Union through its Arctic strategy and the Copernicus programme, which is the world’s largest Earth Observation system using satellites; 3) The international Arctic research community represented by the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). In addition, many international organisations, networks and fora have focus on developing ocean observation. The foremost of these are the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), the UN Decade of Ocean Science, and the G7 Future of the Seas and Ocean Initiative. The report gives a summary of the Framework for Ocean Observing, established by GOOS in 2012. The Framework gives guidelines for establishing and operating ocean observing systems. A simple representation of an observing system consists of three parts: Input, Processes and Output. The input is represented by the requirements defined by the scientific disciplines and the societal issues (e.g. climate monitoring, ecosystem management, natural hazard warning). The processes include the observing activities using platforms and sensors to collect the data described by the requirements. The third component is the outputs, which are data products and information used in scientific work, services for society and in decision making. Finally, there is a feedback loop back to the requirements to be updated and improve the observing systems so they are relevant for the societal issues that help to formulated the requirements. The users and stakeholders of Arctic Ocean observations are briefly described as (1) scientists, (2) Public sector bodies, (3) Private sector – companies, (4) Non-governmental organisations, (5) Indigenous People and local community, (6) International bodies, organisations and networks, and (7) Media. The requirements for ocean observations are defined by the Essential Ocean Variables (EOV), a global standard provided by GOOS. The methods to collect the EOVs can vary, but the quality of the data must satisfy requirements defined by various user communities. For example, the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) has prescribed measurement accuracy, spatial and temporal resolution and other technical specifications of the data to be used in climate monitoring. Observations in the Arctic follows the global standards, but logistical and infrastructure constraints make it difficult to collect in situ data in the same way as in other lower latitude oceans. The observing platforms and networks used on global scales are presented, and those that are applicable for the ice-covered areas are discussed more specifically. Finally, digital technologies in the various parts of the observing systems, including data processing and management, have been described, but this topic will be further elaborated in a subsequent report in 2025.