Blue-Action: understanding the impact of changing Arctic on the Nothern Hemisphere weather and climate

Contribution to the 14thASOF-ISSG Meeting and Workshop, March 20 - 22, 2017, Sopot, Poland at the Institute of Oceanology PAS.

More about ASOF

ASOF is an international program on the oceanography of the Arctic and Subarctic seas and their role in climate. ASOF focusses on ocean fluxes of mass, heat, freshwater, and ice in the Arctic and Subarctic oceans. See here: http://asof.awi.de/

About the meeting

 http://asof.awi.de/outputs/asof-issg-meetings-workshops/sopot-march-20-22-2017/

Arctic and sub-Arctic ocean observations: where do we go?

New Arctic and sub-Arctic observational programs are upcoming, enhancing ongoing activities. These focus on an Arctic observing system (e.g. INTAROS, AOS), high-latitude/mid-latitude interaction (e.g. APPLICATE, BLUE ACTION), prediction capabilities (e.g. YOPP, SIPN) or the drifting observatory MOSAIC, to name a few. At the same time we have seen the cessation of a number of long-term observational programs in the Arctic and sub-Arctic.

With a temporal horizon of 5 years in mind, we suggest to discuss the path of Arctic observations in the context of ASOF:

• How well do the observational programs do in contributing to solve key scientific questions?
• Where do we see progress, where are the gaps (spatial, temporal, technical, scientific) and how could they be closed?
• What is the current status of the integration of models and observations: a) how well can models aid observational network design, b) how an observing system is/shall be set up which is able to be useful for models and model prediction.
• What is the role of ASOF in these activities, and should we get involved more, for example into the AOS, and into YOPP?