D2.8 - Arctic Window of Copernicus, The Arctic PASSION perspective

Arctic PASSION is contributing to the co-creation and implementation of a coherent, integrated Arctic
observing system. It aims to overcome known flaws in the present observing system by refining its
operability, improving and extending pan-Arctic scientific and community-based monitoring and the
integration with Indigenous and Local knowledge. It also aims at streamlining the access and
interoperability of Arctic Data systems and services and contribute to ensuring the economic viability
and sustainability of the observing system.
In the call that Arctic PASSION responded to, it was specifically stated that an Arctic Window of
Copernicus should be established. No details were provided by the EU stakeholders on what this should
be, but the project learned that Copernicus had started development of Copernicus Hubs, including a
Copernicus Arctic Hub. To fully understand the landscape of Copernicus services, Arctic PASSION
performed an analysis of Copernicus services, their interoperability and potential products of relevance
for the Arctic. Main findings of this report is that Copernicus services from an interoperability
perspective are highly heterogeneous making it hard to integrate the Copernicus data in decision
support systems.
The ideas outlined in this document support the idea that users should have the opportunity to find and
look at relevant Copernicus products, but also be able to integrate these into existing value chains,
processing environments or decision support systems. In this context this document suggests extensions
of functionality in the Copernicus Arctic Hub. Improvements in functionality the project think will
increase the impact of Copernicus data. These improvements will require modifications in existing data
documentation (e.g. discovery metadata, to make them suitable for machine interpretation) and web
services. If such changes are not possible, it should be considered to evaluate Copernicus Data Space
Ecosystem for this purpose as this already implements some of the requirements identified.