The IASOA Legacy: Planning for an Atmospheric Arctic Observing Network Beyond the IPY
Taneil Uttal1
1Earth Systems Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, R/PSD3, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO, 80305, USA, Phone 3034976409, Fax 3034976181, Taneil [dot] Uttal [at] noaa [dot] gov
The International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (www.iasoa.org) was an IPY project that conceived of coordinating the efforts of flagship Atmosphere Observatories around the arctic region to address fundamental questions of climate change. In addition to the organization of science forums, gap analysis, data portals, outreach, educational partnerships, and news updates, the program also had a major infrastructure goal of creating an international partnership to support the rebirth of the Tiksi Hydrometeorological Observatory in Russia. Now, the IASOA community will take advantage of existing IASOA organizational structures to propose the design for a comprehensive Arctic Atmospheric Observing network that will be an integral component of SAON. This ground-based system will take advantage of the existing activities at the Flagship Observatories, provide recommendations for a 'network-of-networks', explore opportunities for inclusion of buoy-based atmospheric measurements, and propose a sheme for a permanent, year-round, staffed, International Arctic Ice Station.