Deliverable 2.11 Report on the maturity of existing observing systems in the Arctic

The INTAROS project aims to improve access to and the quality of environmental measurements across the Arctic in a multi disciplinary manner. One key aspect of this work is documentation and collation of information about status of existing observing systems. This work has been undertaken as part of Work Package 2: Exploitation of existing observing systems. The main effort has been to collect important metadata about each of the observing systems by many of the project partners as well as third parties using a standardized set of questionnaires. Questions asked included, but were not limited to, reflections on observing system management. The replies to the questions provide valuable indicators of the observing system maturity following approaches undertaken in the H2020 GAIA-CLIM project [Thorne et al., 2017].

The results of the questionnaires were presented in deliverables D2.1, D2.4 and D2.7, which provided detailed qualitative descriptors of each observing system, divided into atmospheric, ocean and terrestrial domains, without any overall synthesis. The present report aims to undertake such an assessment of in-situ observing system maturity across the domains. It first selects 40 observing systems following reconciliation of cross-thematic systems and removal of those systems that did not provide adequate information. It then takes a series of cross-sections through those observing systems contributed by WP2 to elucidate strengths and weaknesses of the selected systems relative to state-of-the-art practices.

I In the context of the system of systems architecture espoused by the Global Climate Observing System, the selected in-situ networks were assessed according to the three-tier maturity classification: (1) reference, (2) baseline and (3) comprehensive observation system, which was used in the H2020 GAIA-CLIM project.This GCOS system recognises that a system-of-systems approach an appropriate mix all three types represents the optimal solution.The assessment showed that the vast majority of the observing systems were operating at baseline and comprehensive levels across all domains, but only two systems attain reference level, which requires the application of metrological and management best practices in all aspects. Additional reference quality measurements would be highly desirable to complement existing capabilities, and several observing systems that may in future attain reference quality status are identified.

It is clear that observing system maturity is intrinsically linked to the sustainability of support, both financial and expertise. Those observing systems that have sustainable support have better documentation, metadata, data management and uncertainty characterisation. Further work is required to ensure more sustainable support for Arctic observing programs in order to make observations more useable and widely available, in agreement with the FAIR principles [www.datafairport.org]