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Circumarctic Environmental Observatories Network (CEON) is a network of terrestrial and freshwater observation platforms, science experts and network partners promoting the collection and dissemination of environmental data from the Arctic. CEON observation platforms include land and freshwater observatories, research infrastructures, former research sites where retrospective analyses are being or can be undertaken, data and image archive centers and community monitoring programs.
The concept of initiating a CEON was first raised at a meeting of the Forum of Arctic research Operators (FARO) at Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in 2000 by Tom Pyle (US representative to FARO). Members of FARO endorsed the CEON concept specifying that CEON is to promote environmental observations in the Arctic and dissemination of these to Arctic researchers whilst encompassing and building on the strengths of existing stations and environmental observatory networks active in the Arctic.
In June 2002 Tom Pyle, head of Arctic Section of the Office of Polar Programs within the National Science Foundation of the United States tasked Patrick Webber (President of the International Arctic Science Committee - IASC), and Craig Tweedie (then at Michigan State University) with scoping and developing the CEON concept.
The initial development of CEON was based on the notion that early successes will be met by facilitating the activities of existing environmental sites and networks active in the Arctic and increasing the potential for integration and syntheses between sites. Example activities include promoting increased transfer of knowledge and standardization of research methods between networks and sites, and increasing accessibility to data and linkages to multidisciplinary and international programs.
Accordingly, presentations on the CEON concept were made at numerous meetings of organizations/research programs active in the Arctic over a short period of time in order to establish an initial momentum for the development of CEON. Presentations focused on the necessity for the CEON initiative to meet the needs of the participating research community, science administrators, policy makers, industry, education and indigenous communities whilst providing linkages between disciplines and existing networks and connectivity spanning regional to circum-arctic and global scales.
Deliberately, presentations of the CEON concept have made no mention or suggestion of measurements or processes that should or could be made or investigated. Instead, observers have been asked to introduce their own bias into the development of CEON by providing feedback to the following question: "What would you do if you had the opportunity to conduct/maintain standardized and integrated time series observations across multiple research stations and networks in the Arctic?" This 'bottom-up' approach has facilitated the development and scoping of CEON based on the experience, needs and future directions envisaged by a broad range of potential CEON stakeholder and user groups.
CEON's mission is to strengthen the capacity for emerging monitoring, research and policy needs at high northern latitudes by making data available that is adequate and suitable for answering and addressing a series of well-defined key scientific questions and uncertainties.
The CEON stakeholder community has developed the following rationale that underpins development of CEON:
Through collaboration with its partners and the development of novel cyberinfrastructure, CEON aims to provide and facilitate:
At present, CEON is being co-chaired by Terry Callaghan (Abisko Scientific Research Station, Sweden) and Craig Tweedie (University of Texas at El Paso, United States). Terry and Craig oversee CEON's two Science Coordination Offices:
As CEON transitions from an initiation phase of development to an implementational phase, EUSCO and NASCO are focused on developing an improved organizational structure for CEON in consultation with the CEON stakeholder community. EUSCO ~ CEON's European Science Coordination Office
EUSCO's primary role is to:
NASCO ~ CEON's North American Science Coordination Office
NASCO's primary role is to:
Web-based Mapping application development has been a key focus of CEON's activities over the past few years. Interactive web-based mapping applications (also called internet map servers) allow users to view a range of thematic map and satellite image layers, query a range of spatially explicit research and site data including sites affiliated with several international or national environmental observing networks or programs. Perhaps most importantly for CEON, users can glean an assortment of information in a single portal and then link to CEON's partnering networks to access more detailed or explicit information.
CEON has built several types of web-based mapping systems including:
The CEON - Internet Map Server (CEON-IMS) has been developed to enable and enhance the visualization and search-ability of a geo-database composed of observational platforms and information sources compatible with CEON's mission. CEON-IMS includes over 175 layers of remote sensing products, maps, and information on historical and current research efforts - all of which are associated with environmental observations in the Arctic.
This information can be used freely by researchers, land managers, educators, policy makers and local communities to access spatial data and information on primarily terrestrial and freshwater research in the Arctic. The information in this application is linked to online references and other information sources hosted by data providers.
CEON-IMS has been developed by the Systems Ecology Laboratory (SEL) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and Nuna Technologies under several proposals sponsored by the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) at the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
CEON 3D is a prototype application developed with ESRI's free ArcGIS Explorer virtual globe software that is somewhat similar to Google Earth. User's can use this tool to fly to areas of interest and explore networks partnered to CEON. CEON 3D can also be used to print jpg images. CEON 3D also gives the user the ability to import maps, satellite imagery, GPS, Google Earth's kml data format and other data and view these raster or vector (points, lines and polygons) data alongside other CEON data. Importation of data is possible from the users' desktop, local area network, or external drive as well as from various web services (including real time data, satellite archives, data layers from other internet map servers etc.).
Many participants involved in the development of CEON have generously provided whole or partial funding to support their attendance at meetings and participation in drafting of CEON documentation.
The following key organizations have formally endorsed the concept of CEON:
The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred in 1882–1883. Fifty years later (1932–1933) a second IPY took place. The International Geophysical Year was inspired by the IPY and was organized 75 years after the first IPY (1957–58). The fourth, and most recent, IPY covered two full annual cycles from March 2007 to March 2009.
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. STScI was established in 1981 as a community-based science center that is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). STScI's offices are located on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus and in the Rotunda building in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a program of NASA comprising a series of artificial satellite missions and scientific instruments in Earth orbit designed for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, atmosphere, and oceans. Since the early 1970s, NASA has been developing its Earth Observing System, launching a series of Landsat satellites in the decade. Some of the first included passive microwave imaging in 1972 through the Nimbus 5 satellite. Following the launch of various satellite missions, the conception of the program began in the late 1980s and expanded rapidly through the 1990s. Since the inception of the program, it has continued to develop, including; land, sea, radiation and atmosphere. Collected in a system known as EOSDIS, NASA uses this data in order to study the progression and changes in the biosphere of Earth. The main focus of this data collection surrounds climatic science. The program is the centrepiece of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) is a United States information and referral center in support of polar and cryospheric research. NSIDC archives and distributes digital and analog snow and ice data and also maintains information about snow cover, avalanches, glaciers, ice sheets, freshwater ice, sea ice, ground ice, permafrost, atmospheric ice, paleoglaciology, and ice cores.
The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) was built by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) on the basis of a 10-Year Implementation Plan running from 2005 to 2015. GEOSS seeks to connect the producers of environmental data and decision-support tools with the end users of these products, with the aim of enhancing the relevance of Earth observations to global issues. GEOSS aims to produce a global public infrastructure that generates comprehensive, near-real-time environmental data, information and analyses for a wide range of users. The Secretariat Director of Geoss is Barbara Ryan.
The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) was established in 1992 as an outcome of the Second World Climate Conference, to ensure that the observations and information needed to address climate-related issues are obtained and made available to all potential users. The GCOS is co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Council for Science (ICSU). In order to assess and monitor the adequacy of in-situ observation networks as well as satellite-based observing systems, GCOS regularly reports on the adequacy of the current climate observing system to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and thereby identifies the needs of the current climate observing system.
The Abisko Scientific Research Station (ANS) is a field research station managed by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat. Situated on the south shore of Lake Torneträsk, it lies at the edge of the Abisko National Park. The station conducts ecological, geological, geomorphological and meteorological research in subarctic environments and each year about 500 scientists visit from all over the world. The varied geological, topographical and climatic conditions of the area allow it to be inhabited by a range of flora and fauna. These features, which have caused the area to be given National Park status, also make it an important place for scientific research, particularly of alpine and subalpine ecosystems.
Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union Space Programme, managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the EU Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), Frontex, SatCen and Mercator Océan.
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The Barrow Area Information Database (BAID) is designed to support Arctic science with a special focus on the research hubs of Barrow, Atqasuk, and Ivotuk on the North Slope of Alaska.
The Arctic policy of the United States is the foreign policy of the United States in regard to the Arctic region. In addition, the United States' domestic policy toward Alaska is part of its Arctic policy.
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The Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) is a service in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Russia) which carries out the functions of state property management and provision of public services in the field of hydrometeorology and related areas, monitoring of environmental environment pollution, public oversight of the work on modification of meteorological and other geophysical processes.
The Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic, or ELOKA, is an Arctic research data management program that combines local traditional knowledge (LTK) and local observations data from Indigenous Arctic residents utilizing effective and appropriate western methods to properly share Arctic Indigenous Knowledge. The LTK data the program stewards consists of observations of sea ice, weather, wildlife and comes in many forms such as written interview transcripts, audio or video tapes and files, photographs, artwork, illustrations and maps. Housed at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder Cooperative Institute for Research and Environmental Sciences (CIRES), ELOKA is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Arctic Observing Network (AON) research program that came out of the 2007-2008 International Polar Year (IPY).
The Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications, and Remote Sensing is a non-profit research institute in Greece with expertise in multidisciplinary astrophysical, space and environmental sciences. It is an independent research Institute of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) established in 2012 from the merging of the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Institute of Space Applications and Remote Sensing. The scientists of the Institute have broad knowledge in various areas of observational Astrophysics, Space Science and Earth observation techniques and their applications. They have established collaborations with research groups in Europe and United States, and their work is recognized through publications in refereed journals, invited talks at international conferences, and coordination of EU-funded and ESA-funded research projects. More details on the IAASARS and its activities can be found in its annual report.
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