Establishment of Arctic Regional Ocean Observing System

An Arctic Regional Ocean Observing System (Arctic ROOS) has been established by a group of 14 member institutions from nine European countries working actively with ocean observation and modelling systems for the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas.

Arctic ROOS will promote, develop and maintain operational monitoring and forecasting of ocean circulation, water masses, ocean surface conditions, sea ice and biological/chemical constituents.

One of the goals of Arctic ROOS is to contribute to the legacy of IPY, maintaining cost-effective and useful observing systems after the end of IPY.

Arctic ROOS intends to include more members from countries outside of Europe and become a GOOS Regional Alliance for the Arctic. Arctic ROOS has established a secretariat at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway.

Arctic ROOS is a contribution to the IPY project no. 379:  "IPY Operational Oceanography for the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas" coordinated by Prof. Ola M. Johannessen. The project was submitted in 2005 and endorsed by IPY in 2006. Link to the proposal.

TOPAZ model simulations for the Atlantic Ocean, the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean, used to present ice-ocean forecasts,
disseminated through the web site http://topaz.nersc.no. The forecasts are produced by the Mohn-Sverdrup
Center for Operational Oceanography at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center.

The foundation meeting for Arctic ROOS was held at Brändö Konferens och Fritidsby in Luleå, Sweden 18-19 December, hosted jointly by SMHI and EuroGOOS.

Participants in the foundation meeting (from left): Jan Piechura, Stein Sandven, Mary Altalo, Ari Seina,
Leonid Bobylev, Dominique Durand, Sian Petersson,  Amund Lindberg, Eberhard Fahrbach, 
Helge Tangen, Leif Toudal Pedersen,  Jan Stel and Hans Dahlin.

Presentations of ongoing and planned Arctic ROOS activities were given by the members and can be downloaded: AWI-presentation, DMI-presentation, FIMR-presentation, IOPAS-presentation, met.no-presentation, NERSC-presentation, NIERSC-presentation, NIVA-presentation, SMHI-presentation, Univ. Bremen-presentation, and the formal establishment of Arctic ROOS was presented by Hans Dahlin from EuroGOOS

Arctic GOOS represented at the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø

Outcome of the Arctic GOOS planning meeting 12 - 13 September 2006

Hosted jointly by Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and EuroGOOS Secretariat

Venue: Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center,
Thormøhlensgate 47, N-5006 Bergen, Norway
12 - 13 Sept. 2006

Objective of the meeting

The objective of the meeting was to plan the next steps in organizing and developing operational oceanography services for the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. This is a follow-up of the planning document ("The Arctic Ocean and the Need for an Arctic GOOS") published by EuroGOOS in 2005. At present there are several ongoing projects and services in operational oceanography in the Arctic and during IPY there will be increased data collection and modelling efforts that can be used as building blocks for Arctic GOOS. The outcome of the meeting was to identify the next steps to develop an Arctic GOOS Alliance based on the initiatives taken by EuroGOOS and the good support from IOC, IGOOS, and Non-European countries as USA and Canada.

Summary presentation of the ArcticGOOS can be downloaded here

The individual presentations can be downloaded from the following agenga, click on title/name.

12 September 1300 – ca. 1700

Historical Documents

• The Arctic Ocean and the need for an Arctic GOOS (EuroGOOS publication No. 22, 2005)

• ATT introduction

• IOC-WMO-UNEP-ICSU Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) (GOOS report No. 151, 2006)

• IOC Thirty-ninth Session of the Executive Council (2006)

• The integrated Arctic Ocean Observing System (iAOOS): an AOSB-CliC Observing Plan for the International Polar Year (AOSB-CliC plan for iAOOS version 4)

• TOWARD AN INTEGRATED ARCTIC OBSERVING NETWORK (2006)