Displays

A consortium of polar data coordinating bodies has recently hosted a number of useful workshops and events to foster collaboration between individuals, institutions, projects and organizations. These events have built on polar data coordination efforts including progress made during the International Polar Year, focused workshops in 2016, 17, and 18, and three Polar Data Forum meetings (2013,15,19).  

These and other activities have identified a need for continued community development and detailed technical collaboration in order to advance Polar Data Management. Technical activity has centred on achieving federated search through the exchange of standardised, well formatted discovery metadata. This is an important first step towards an interconnected polar data system and important gaps and mitigation have been identified at the levels of standardisation, exchange protocols, and eventually semantic annotation of datasets.

These activities have been and will continue to be organized by a group of coordination bodies including the IASC-SAON Arctic Data Committee, the Southern Ocean Observing System, Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management, GEO Cold Regions Initiative, Polar View, Arctic Portal, ELOKA, Canadian Consortium on Arctic Data Interoperability, U.S. Inter-agency Arctic Research Policy Committee Arctic Data Sub-Team, and the WMO Global Cryosphere Watch.

As a contribution to these international efforts, in January 2020, the European Union Horizon 2020 project CAPARDUS was established as a coordination and support action with the objective to establish a comprehensive framework for development, understanding and implementation of Arctic standards with focus on environmental topics and related data. The framework will integrate standards used by communities active in the Arctic and polar regions including research and services, Indigenous and local communities, commercial operators and governance bodies. Development of standards is important for many technologies and services (e.g. federated search) that can bring broad social and economic benefits within and beyond the Arctic region.

In this presentation we first provide a synthesis of more than a decade and a half of activity and development in polar data management and interoperable data sharing.  Results from this analysis reveal two primary areas of successful developments: i) social and organizational including data policy, building working relationships, and funding cyberinfrastructure ; ii) technical developments in federated search, semantic interoperability, and use of web services.  Patterns, advancements and development gaps are identified and discussed.  Secondly, we present an overview of the first quarter of activity under the CAPARDUS project, including a preliminary model aimed and enhancing appropriate levels of standardization in the polar data community.

How to cite: Pulsifer, P. L., McCubbin, S., Sandven, S., and Parsons, M. A.: Developments in Polar Data Management 2006 – 2019 and Beyond: standardization and community-building in support of enhanced interoperability, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22498, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22498, 2020.

A changing Arctic

In recent decades, sustained observations of Arctic environmental and socio-economic systems have revealed a pace, magnitude, and extent of change that is unprecedented by many measures. These changes include rapid depletion of the cryosphere, shifts in ecological communities that threaten biodiversity and increasing challenges to food security and resilience across northern communities.

The Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON)

SAON is a joint initiative of the Arctic Council and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). It was created to strengthen multinational engagement in and coordination of pan-Arctic observing. SAON’s intent is to unite Arctic and non-Arctic countries and Indigenous Peoples in support of a systematic network of activities through structured facilitation.

A Roadmap for Arctic Observing and Data Systems (ROADS)

In its recent strategic plan, SAON identified the need for a Roadmap for Arctic Observing and Data Systems (ROADS) to set a course for the needed system and to specify how the various partners and players are going to collectively work towards getting it there. The purpose of ROADS is to stimulate multinational resource mobilization around specific plans with clear value propositions, to serve as a tool for the joint utilization of Indigenous Knowledge and science, to coordinate engagement and to ensure that maximal benefits are delivered. A well-defined assessment process is required to establish a communal view of “societal benefit”, and a key tool for such assessment will be The International Arctic Observing Assessment Framework (IAOAF) following the First Arctic Science Ministerial.

Continuing multinational coordination through SAON was endorsed by the Second Arctic Science Ministerial in their Joint Statement with an emphasis on: “moving from the design to the deployment phase of an integrated Arctic observing system”.

Essential Arctic Variables

SAON has identified the essential variable strategy as a best practice for supporting network development. The approach is conceptually holistic, yet can proceed step-wise as essential variables achieve readiness. ROADS will be organized around Essential Arctic Variables (EAVs). These are conceptually broad observing categories (e.g. “sea ice”) identified for their criticality to achieving Arctic societal benefit. EAVs are defined by their observing system requirements (e.g. spatial resolution, frequency, coverage, accuracy), which are technology-neutral and should transcend specific observing strategies, programs or regions. They are implemented through specific recommendations based on best available technology and practices.

How to cite: Larsen, J. R. and Starkweather, S.: A Roadmap for Arctic Observing and Data Systems, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22420, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22420, 2020.

A comprehensive assessment of a substantial subset of Arctic observing systems, data collections and satellite products across scientific disciplines was carried out in INTAROS, also including data repositories and a brief scientific gap analysis. The assessments cover a multitude of aspects such as sustainability, technical maturity and data handling for the entire chain from observation to users, including metadata procedures and availability to data. Community based environment monitoring programs were surveyed and assessed separately; they do not form part of the present assessment.

The assessed observing systems were first ranked according to general sustainability and other aspects, were analyzed subsequently. While the range of sustainability is large, it was found that high scores on all other aspects, such as for data handling and technical maturity, are more likely for systems with high sustainability. Moreover, many systems with high sustainability, as well as advanced systems for data handling and availability in place, resulted from national commitments to international monitoring or infrastructure programs, several of which are not necessarily particular to the Arctic.

Traditionally, terrestrial and atmospheric observation network assessments build on the network concept with a “comprehensive” level including all observations, a “baseline” level of an agreed subset of sustained observations, and a “reference” level, with observations adhering to specific calibrations and traceability criteria. Examples from atmospheric observations are the “comprehensive” global GCOS radiosounding network, the “baseline” GUAN (GCOS Upper Air Network) and “reference” GRUAN (GCOS Reference Upper Air Network) networks. With the lack of in-situ observations especially from the Arctic Ocean and the logistical difficulties to deploy new stations, it was concluded that this concept does not work well in the Arctic.

In summary, we recommend that:

• advancement in Arctic observing should be done in international global or regional programs with well-established routines and procedures, rather than to invest in new Arctic-specific programs
• investments in new instruments and techniques be done at already established sites, to benefit interdisciplinary studies and optimize infrastructure costs
• more observations be based on ships of opportunity and that a subset of ocean, sea-ice and atmosphere observations always be made on all research expeditions, regardless of their scientific aim
• the funding structures for science expeditions is reviewed to maintain, and preferably increase, the number of expeditions and to safeguard funding for appropriate data handling and storage
• observing-network concept for the atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean is revised, so that coupled reanalyses represent the “comprehensive level”, satellite observations complemented with available in-situ data is the “baseline level”, while scientific expeditions is the “reference level”. This requires substantial improvements in reanalysis, better numerical models and data assimilation, better satellite observations and improved data handling and accessibility for scientific expeditions.

How to cite: Pirazzini, R., Tjernström, M., Sandven, S., Sagen, H., Hamre, T., Ludwigsen, C., Beszczynska-Möller, A., Gustafsson, D., Heygster, G., Sejr, M., Ahlstrøm, A., Navarro, F., Goeckede, M., Zona, D., Buch, E., Sorensen, M., and Soltwedel, T.: INTAROS synthesis of gap analysis of the existing Arctic observing systems, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20091, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20091, 2020.

Climate change in the Arctic is significant and will have far-reaching consequences for marine life and sustainable societal and industrial development in this region. Sustained direct (in situ) measurements of key physical and biogeochemical parameters in Arctic waters are required to estimate the state and monitor changes in the marine environment. Since in situ data is most frequently collected in research projects funded by national, regional or international programmes, there is no common overview of what data are collected in which area, for which time period, by which organisation, or where the data are stored. The H2020 INTAROS project has conducted a survey of Arctic in situ observing systems, in situ and remote sensing data collections. Based on the questionnaires from this survey we have developed a user-friendly web-based system for collecting and maintaining information about Arctic in situ observing systems and data collections in a project funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment. This system, called arcmap, is developed using open source technologies and frameworks, such as wq (https://wq.io/) and Django REST (https://www.django-rest-framework.org/). Arcmap enables users to register and maintain information about their Arctic in situ observing systems and data collections. The information is stored in a relational database, which offers a flexible query language for extracting subsets and aggregates of information based on user defined criteria. Building on this database, statistics can be generated on for example spatial and temporal coverage, parameters observed and targeted application areas, nationality of owners of observing systems and data collections, funding sources and periods, maturity of data management. Using these statistical measures different aspects of sustainability for current and planned Arctic observing systems can be analysed. This allows us to identify patterns and gaps in collection of important environmental variables and to follow the evolution of observing systems over time. The presentation will focus on the current functionality of arcmap and outline possible future enhancements.

How to cite: Hamre, T., Monsen, F., Sagen, H., Olaussen, T. I., Geyer, F., and Pirazzini, R.: Mapping Arctic Observing Systems and In Situ Data Collections, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20559, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20559, 2020.

The dramatic changes occurring in the Arctic due to the global warming generate feedbacks on global circulation and midlatitude climate and, at the local scale, pose challenges to Arctic populations and infrastructures and threaten the Arctic fauna and flora. Observations in the Arctic are needed to understand the ongoing geophysical and socio-ecological processes and changes, to plan adaptation strategies, and to sustainably manage the environment. A joint effort from the scientific and societal communities is necessary to monitor relevant phenomena in such a vast and poorly accessible area of the globe.

The integration of citizen and science observations is envisioned by the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) as a key element of the Roadmap for a comprehensive long-term pan-Arctic Observing and Data System (ROADS) that serves societal needs. Often, however, the different language and methodology adopted by scientific and non-scientific communities hamper the exchange and usability of the available observations. In the EU INTAROS project, metadata on community-based and scientific observing programs were collected using a common questionnaire in order to assess gaps and strengths in the observing systems.

The assessment revealed that the community-based observations rarely belong to long-term sustained programs, and suffer from lack of long-term preservation strategies more severely than science-based observing systems. On the other hand, many science-based marine observations are collected only during the summer season, while community-based observations are less prone to temporal gaps. Community-based monitoring efforts can help increase observational coverage in space and time with often low-cost approaches, while also adding value through the introduction of holistic perspectives – such as Indigenous knowledge-based – into the observing process.

Our analysis demonstrated that, despite the differences in method and language between community- and science-based programs, the adopted assessment methodology enables the comparison and, thus, the integration of the metadata (that e.g. describe frequency of observations, locations, types of variables observed etc.) pertaining to community and science-based observing systems.

How to cite: Danielsen, F., Pirazzini, R., Eicken, H., Fidel, M., Iversen, L., Johnson, N., Lee, O., Poulsen, M. K., Pulsifer, P. L., Sagen, H., and Sandven, S.: INTAROS joint assessment of scientific and community-based observation programs, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22212, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22212, 2020.

The Norwegian Scientific Data Network (NorDataNet) is a national e-infrastructure building on the legacy of the International Polar Year. Initially it is focusing on geoscience and establishing interoperability interfaces between existing national data repositories in the areas of discovery metadata and data as well as on harmonised data documentation following the FAIR guiding principles. The technical foundation of NorDataNet is built on data documentation standards, standardised interoperability interfaces and semantic resources. This is now in place and preliminary functionalities are available. These includes the ability to discover and access datasets across the data repositories integrated, as well as visualisation and transformation of datasets served using the requested documentation standards and interfaces. Bottlenecks and achievements while working towards FAIR compliant data and data centres interoperability will be presented.

How to cite: Godoy, Ø., Hamre, T., Tronstad, S., Fiebig, M., Sagen, H., and Ferrighi, L.: The Norwegian Scientific Data Network, a distributed electronic research infrastructure, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22199, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22199, 2020.

Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) is an international consortium to develop and maintain a regional observing system in Svalbard and the surrounding waters. SIOS brings observations together into a coherent and integrated observational programme that will be sustained over a long period. Within SIOS, researchers can cooperate to access instruments, acquire data and address questions that would not be practical or cost effective for a single institution or nation alone. By bringing many types of observations together and asking questions about how these observations are influenced by each other, SIOS generates new insights about the Svalbard region’s role in the Earth system.  Thus, SIOS offers unique opportunities for research and the long-term acquisition of fundamental knowledge about global environmental change.

SIOS facilitates access to Earth System Science (ESS) data from Svalbard through a free and open data portal that enables the users to search, retrieve, visualise, transform, and harvest ESS data relevant to Svalbard stored in the distributed data centres of SIOS partners. The Observation Facility Catalogue (OFC) is a part of SIOS data portal which allows collecting and sharing information about research infrastructures distributed in Svalbard.

The OFC gives an overview of existing, planned and historic observation facilities,which collect SIOS data. An observation facility can be one instrument or a collection of instruments. The annotation is standardised based on WMO standards as far as possible, in order to make entries unambiguous and interoperable internationally.

The purpose of the OFC is to make better use of the existing research infrastructure by facilitating the search for given parameters and their location.  In this way, duplication can be avoided and new measurements can be co-located with existing ones. The catalogue has a map interface and advanced search function.  The search interface allows users to search for GCMD keywords or to filter by status, type or observatory.

How to cite: ignatiuk, D., Jennings, I., Ferrigni, L., Godøy, Ø., Jawak, S., Lihavainen, H., Andersen, B., and Hübner, C.: The Observation Facility Catalogue – an overview of the SIOS research infrastructure on Svalbard, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22427, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22427, 2020.

The Ice Watch program coordinates routine visual observations of sea-ice including icebergs and meteorological parameters. The development and use of the Arctic Shipborne Sea Ice Standardization Tool (ASSIST) software has enabled the program to collect over 6 800 records from numerous ship voyages and it is complementary to the Antarctic Sea-ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) in the Antarctic. These observations will enhance validation and calibration of data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellites and other Earth Observation missions where the lack of routine spatially and temporally coincident data from the Polar Regions hinders the development of automatic classification products. A critical piece of information for operations and research, photographic records of observations, is often missing. As mobile phones are nearly ubiquitous and feature high-quality cameras, capable of recording accurate ancillary timing and positional information we are developing the IceWatchApp to aid users in supplementing observations with a photographic record.

The IceWatchApp has been funded by the Citizen Science Earth Observation Lab (CSEOL) programme of the European Space Agency and the Polar Citizen Science Collective, which has successfully implemented similar observation projects within atmospherics, biology and marine geosciences, is collaborating in its development. The image database will aid the training of machine learning algorithms for automatic sea ice type classification and provide a mechanism for crowd-sourcing identification through an “ask a scientist” feedback feature. The app will also have the capability to provide near real-time satellite and Copernicus services products back to the user, thereby educating them on Earth Observation, and giving them an improved understanding of the surrounding environment.

Keywords: Polar regions, Arctic, Antarctic, data collection, In-Situ measurements, remote sensing, Sea Ice, user engagement, citizen science, Earth Observation.
Abstract: to session 35413

How to cite: Hegelund, O. J., Everett, A., Cheeseman, T., Wagner, P., Hughes, N., Pierechod, M., Southerland, K., Robinson, P., Hutchings, J., Kiærbech, Å., and Lillehaug Pedersen, J.: Extending the Ice Watch system as a citizen science project for the collection of In-Situ sea ice observations, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-7126, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7126, 2020.

The central Arctic Ocean is one of the least observed oceans in the world. This ice-covered region is challenging for ocean observing with respect to technology, logistics and costs. Many physical, biogeochemical, biological, and geophysical processes in the water column and sea floor under the sea ice are difficult to observe and therefore poorly understood. Today, there are technological advances in platforms and sensors for under-ice observation, which offer possibilities to install and operate sustained observing infrastructures in the Arctic Ocean. The goal of the INTAROS project is to develop integrated observing systems in the Arctic, including improvement of data sharing and dissemination to various user groups. INTAROS supports a number of systems providing data from the ocean in delayed mode as well as in near-real time mode, but only a few operate in the ice-covered areas.

Autonomous observing platforms used in the ice-free oceans such as Argo floats, gliders, and autonomous surface vehicles cannot yet be used operationally in ice-covered Arctic regions. The limitation is because the sea ice prevents these underwater platforms from reaching the surface for satellite communication and geopositioning. To improve the Arctic Ocean Observing capability OceanObs19 recommended ‘to pilot a sustained multipurpose acoustic network for positioning, tomography, passive acoustics, and communication in an integrated Arctic Observing System, with eventual transition to global coverage’. Acoustic networks have been used locally and regionally in the Arctic for underwater acoustic thermometry, geo-positioning for floats and gliders, and passive acoustic. The Coordinated Arctic Acoustic Thermometry Experiment (CAATEX) is a first step toward developing a basin-scale multipurpose acoustic network using modern instrumentation.

To provide secure data delivery, submarine cables are needed either as dedicated cabled observatories or as hybrid cable systems (sharing the cable infrastructure between science and commercial telecommunications), or both combined. Several large-scale cabled observatories existing coastal areas in world oceans, but none on the Arctic Ocean. At OceanObs19 it was recommended to transition (telecom+sensing) SMART subsea cable systems from present pilots to trans-ocean implementation, to address climate, ocean circulation, sea level, tsunami and earthquake early warning, ultimately with global coverage. Cabled observatories, either stand alone or branching from a hybrid system, could provide power and real time communication to support connected water column moorings and sea floor instrumentation as well as docking mobile platforms. Subsea cable developers are looking into the possibility to deploy a communication cable across the Arctic Ocean from Europe to Asia, because this offers a much shorter route compared to the terrestrial cables.

 An international consortium of leading scientists in ocean observing with experience in state-of-the-art technologies on platforms, sensors, subsea cable technology, acoustic communication and data transmission plan to establish a project to implement and test the system based on experience from the CAATEX experiment and other Arctic observing system experiments. The INTAROS project is presently developing a Roadmap for an integrated Arctic Observing System, where multipurpose ocean observing systems will be one component.

How to cite: Sandven, S., Sagen, H., Beszczynska-Möller, A., Vo, P., Houssais, M.-N., Sørensen, M., Sejr, M. K., Dzieciuch, M., Worcester, P., Storheim, E., Geyer, F., and Rønning, B.: Implementation of a multipurpose Arctic Ocean Observing System, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20347, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20347, 2020.

A thermistor-string-based Snow and Ice Mass Balance Array (SIMBA) has been developed in recent years and used for monitoring snow and ice mass balance in the Arctic Ocean. SIMBA measures vertical environment temperature (ET) profiles through the air-snow-sea ice-ocean column using a thermistor string (5 m long, sensor spacing 2cm). Each thermistor sensor equipped with a small identical heating element. A small voltage was applied to the heating element so that the heat energy liberated in the vicinity of each sensor is the same. The heating time intervals lasted 60 s and 120 s, respectively. The heating temperatures (HT) after these two intervals were recorded. The ET was measured 4 times a day and once per day for the HT.

A total 15 SIMBA buoys have been deployed in the Arctic Ocean during the Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) 2018 and the Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System (NABOS) 2018 field expeditions in late autumn. We applied a recently developed SIMBA algorithm to retrieve snow and ice thickness using SIMBA ET and HT temperature data. We focus particularly on sea ice bottom evolution during Arctic winter.

In mid-September 2018, 5 SIMBA buoys were deployed in the East Siberian Sea (NABOS2018) where snow was in practical zero cm and ice thickness ranged between 1.8 m – 2.6 m. By the end of May, those SIMBA buoys were drifted in the central Arctic where snow and ice thicknesses were around 0.05m - 0.2m and 2.6m – 3.2m, respectively. For those 10 SIMBA buoys deployed by the CHINARE2018 in the Chukchi Sea and Canadian Basin, the initial snow and ice thickness were ranged between 0.05m – 0.1cm and 1.5m – 2.5m, respectively.  By the end of May, those SIMBA buoys were drifted toward the north of Greenland where snow and ice thicknesses were around 0.2m - 0.3m and 2.0m – 3.5m, respectively. The ice bottom evolution derived by SIMBA algorithm agrees well with SIMBA HT identified ice-ocean interfaces. We also perform a preliminary investigation of sea ice bottom evolution measured by several SIMBA buoys deployed during the MOSAiC leg1 field campaign in winter 2019/2020.  

How to cite: Cheng, B., Vihma, T., Liao, Z., Lei, R., Hoppmann, M., Qiu, Y., Pirazzini, R., and Sandven, S.: Winter Arctic sea ice bottom evolution detected by thermistor string-based ice mass balance buoys (SIMBA), EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22171, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22171, 2020.

Recent studies show that under the right conditions relative sea level can be measured using GNSS interferometric reflectometry (GNSS-IR). We test the possibility of using an existing GNET GPS station in Thule, Greenland, to measure inter annual changes in sea level by comparing sea level measurements from GNSS-IR with tide gauge observations and satellite altimetry data. GNET is a network of 56 permanent GPS stations positioned on the bedrock around the edge fo the Greenland ice sheet with the main purpose of monitoring ice mass changes. Currently, Thule is the only location in Greenland where we have both a tide gauge and a GPS station that is suitable for sea level measurement covering the same time period for more than a couple of years. If successful a number of other GPS stations are also expected to be suitable for GNSS-IR measurements of sea level. However, they lack the tide gauge station for testing.
We compare the measured sea level with uplift measured using the GPS and modeled from height changes of the Greenland ice sheet as well as sea surface temperatures and modeled sea level changes from gravimetry, in order to investigate the origin of sea level changes in the region.  
 

How to cite: Dahl-Jensen, T. S., Khan, S. A., Williams, S. D. P., Andersen, O. B., and Ludwigsen, C. A.: Sea level in Thule measured with tide gauge, GNSS-IR and Satellite Altimetry, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-5077, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5077, 2020.

Water isotopes measured in ice cores are well-known tracers of paleoclimate variations. The ratio of heavy to light isotope in snow is indeed strongly controlled by the temperature during condensation along the entire airmass transport. This allows the utilization of isotope variability in the water cycle in current climatic conditions, and on weather time scales, to try to pinpoint key events and processes building up (or re-stating) the isotope signature of a given air mass. Because isotopic fractionation occurs every time water changes phase, it is highly beneficial to sample concurrently the different water reservoirs (i.e. seawater, sea ice, snow, rain and vapor) in order to truly understand the processes at work.

Here we present stable water isotope data from two cruises north of Svalbard within the INTAROS project (summer 2018 and summer 2019). During these cruises, vapor isotope composition was measured quasi-continuously on the coast guard icebreaker KV Svalbard. Seawater and precipitation samples were collected continuously throughout the cruises. The 2018 cruise mainly targeted locations within the Marginal Ice Zone north of Svalbard. On the 2019 cruise, sea ice samples and snow samples were collected at 8 ice stations, all the way to the North Pole. The liquid/solid samples were later analyzed at FARLAB at the University of Bergen.

A first analysis of the dataset shows that stable water isotope values vary with air mass origin, with marked differences between '¹⁸O-enriched’ air coming from the south-east (Barents Sea) and ‘¹⁸O-depleted’ air from the north-west (Inner Arctic) during the second cruise. During the 2019 cruise, vapor in air from the south-east tends to have relatively low d-excess values whereas precipitation is largely at equilibrium with the ambient vapor. This INTAROS dataset will be highly beneficial for studies using (coupled) isotope-enabled models, such as earth system models or high-latitude regional climate models, to validate their representation of the high-latitude water cycle.

How to cite: Touzeau, A., Sodemann, H., Sagen, H., Granskog, M. A., Raffel, B., Roden, N., Storheim, E., de Lange, T. E., Chen, Y.-C., and Sandven, H.: Stable water isotope observations during INTAROS cruises North of Svalbard: links to atmospheric circulation and sea ice processes, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-8496, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8496, 2020.

The Space Weather effects on the ionosphere considerably affect several modern technology infrastructures, such as telecommunication systems, power networks and in general systems relying on satellite navigation. The polar regions have always been a natural laboratory for the analysis of these phenomena and regular observations are required to gain better knowledge about the relationships between the ionized atmosphere and the others atmospheric layers as well as to provide support to civil aviation and maritime for the safety of the polar routes.

The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) has a long history in acquiring ionospheric data in the polar regions and currently operates in the Arctic two permanent observatories in Svalbard (Ny-Ålesund and Longyearbyen), Norway, equipped with three GNSS receivers for scintillation and TEC measurement. An additional receiver will be installed soon at the Thule Air Base (Greenland).

The uninterrupted data production from these instruments and the necessity to provide near real-time access to this information makes it necessary to develop suited procedures and ad-hoc IT infrastructures. To address these needs the INGV designed the SWIT system (Space Weather Information Technology) for data management and the web-platform eSWua (electronic Space Weather upper atmosphere) for data dissemination. With regard to the Arctic region, the information-flow from Svalbard stations is provided by optical fibre connections and the SWIT-DBMS operates the ingestion of this data at the INGV central repository within 15 minutes or less. The eSWua website offers a GUI for near real-time and historical data visualization, while web-based tools and a RESTful web-service will provide free access to the data at different processing levels. The planning and design of this infrastructure takes advantage of the experience gained from ongoing projects like the NADC (the Italian National Antarctic Data Center).

In this paper the state of the art of the INGV Arctic and Antarctic data management system for the Ionospheric and space weather data and the efforts undertaken to improve the access and availability of these information are presented and discussed.

How to cite: Pica, E., Romano, V., Marcocci, C., Cesaroni, C., and Hunstad, I.: The INGV Arctic Ionospheric data management system and its synergy with the Italian NADC, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22424, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22424, 2020.

A Permafrost Information System (PerSys) based on satellite data has been setup as part of the ESA DUE GlobPermafrost project (2016-2019, www.globpermafrost.info). This includes a data catalogue as well as a WebGIS, both linked to the Pangaea repository for easy data access.

The thematic products available include InSAR-based land surface deformation maps, rock glacier velocity fields, spatially distributed permafrost model outputs, land surface properties and changes, and ground-fast lake ice. Extended permafrost modelling (time series) is implemented in the new ESA CCI+ Permafrost project (2018-2021, http://cci.esa.int/Permafrost), which will provide the key for our understanding of the changes of surface features over time. Special emphasis in CCI+ Permafrost is on the evaluation and development of land surface models to gain better understanding of the impact of climate change on permafrost and land-atmosphere exchange. Additional focus will be on documentation of kinematics from rock glaciers in several mountain regions across the world supporting the International Permafrost Association (IPA) action group ‘rock glacier kinematics as an essential climate variable’.

We will present the Permafrost Information System including the time series (2003-2017) of the first version of ground temperatures and active layer thickness for the entire Arctic from the ESA CCI+ Permafrost project. Further on, details on the user requirements collection process will be provided. Ground temperature is calculated for 0, 1m, 2m, 5m, and 10 m depth and has been assessed based on a range of borehole data. A survey regarding data repositories containing for validation relevant borehole data has been conducted. The records have been evaluated for the project purpose and harmonized. The resulting database will be eventually also made publicly available.

How to cite: Bartsch, A. and the ESA DUE GlobPermafrost and ESA CCI+ Permafrost Teams: Data collections of ESA DUE GlobPermafrost and ESA CCI+ Permafrost, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-9543, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-9543, 2020.

GlaThiDa is an internationally collected, standardized dataset of glacier thickness from in-situ and remotely sensed observations, based on data submissions, literature review, and airborne data from NASA's Operation IceBridge. GlaThiDa is a contribution to the working group on ‘glacier ice thickness estimation’ formed under the auspices of the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS). The database is hosted by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). GlaThiDa is structured in three data tables of different levels of detail, which are linked together by a unique identifier for each glacier survey. The first table (T) is the overview table containing information on the location and area of the surveyed glacier, interpolated mean and maximum glacier-wide thickness and their reported uncertainties, the survey method and related information, as well as investigator names and source of the data. The second table (TT) includes mean and maximum ice thickness interpolated over surface elevation bands. The third table (TTT) contains the original point measurements, including spatial coordinates, surface elevation, and ice thickness. GlaThiDa was first released in 2014 (version 1.0) and first updated in 2016 (version 2.1). Version 3.0 was released in 2019. In addition to several technical improvements, nearly 3 600 ice-thickness surveys have been added, for a total of 5 181. Most of the new data are for Arctic glaciers, and some of these were collected for the H2020 INTAROS project. Moreover, GlaThiDa was assessed as a core component of the existing Arctic observing system in INTAROS Work Package 2.1 (an assessment of existing Arctic observational capacity and remaining gaps with respect to stakeholders needs). GlaThiDa has great potential as a reference dataset for calibrating and validating regional and global glacier volume estimates.

How to cite: Welty, E., Navarro, F., Fürst, J., Gärtner-Roer, I., Naegeli, K., Landmann, J., Huss, M., Knecht, T., Machguth, H., and Zemp, M.: Integrating and assessing Arctic glacier thickness data into Glacier Thickness Database (GlaThiDa) Version 3.0, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-13842, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-13842, 2020.