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This study provides an overview of the Earth observation and remote sensing activities of Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) undertaken when building an observing system for sustained measurements in and around Svalbard to address Earth System Science (ESS) questions. SIOS research infrastructures are distributed across and around Svalbard for acquiring long-term in situ observations. These in situ measurements are not only useful for various ground-based studies, but also applicable for calibration and validation (Cal/Val) of current and future satellite missions e.g. Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR), Radar Observing System for Europe - L-Band (ROSE-L ) or Sentinel-1,2, Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter (CRISTAL), Sentinel-5 Precursor, and Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for Environment (CHIME). Better integration of in situ and satellite-based measurements is crucial for building a coherent network of observations to fill observational gaps. Additionally. complementing in situ measurements with satellite data is a prime necessity to generate operational reliable geoinformation products using traditional and advanced methods, for example, mapping vegetation extent in Svalbard using Sentinel-2 data complemented with in situ measurements of spectral reflectance collected by SIOS infrastructure. SIOS’s remote sensing activities are developed in SIOS knowledge centre (SIOS-KC) under the direction of the remote sensing working group (RSWG). This study highlights our current activities, goals for the next five years (2022-2026) and future activities with the intention of attracting potential collaborations to support achieving these goals. The study discusses SIOS’s present activities, including (1) capacity building e.g., webinar series, online conference, and training courses on EO and RS studies in Svalbard to train the next generation of polar scientists, (2) infrastructure development (like the current infrastructure investment programme SIOS-InfraNor) that can attract Cal/Val activities to Svalbard (3) SIOS’s airborne remote sensing activities, and (4) SIOS remote sensing service tools for field scientists. Ongoing and future activities include (1) the development of unified platform for satellite data availability for Svalbard, (2) establishing an EO and RS researcher’s forum on SIOS website, (3) community-based observations e.g. developing a citizen science project model for supporting satellite cal/val activities in Svalbard, (4) ongoing surveys on user requirements, product inventory and citizen science project, and (5) the ‘Satellite image of the week campaign’ on social media for outreach. The sustained and coordinated efforts by SIOS to develop a long-term monitoring system are expected to contribute to integrated monitoring, modelling and supporting decision making in Svalbard in the coming decades.

Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) is an international collaboration of 24 research institutions from 9 countries studying the environment and climate in and around Svalbard. The global pandemic of Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has affected the Svalbard research in a number of ways due to nationwide lockdown in many countries, strict travel restrictions in Svalbard, and quarantine regulations. Many field campaigns to Svalbard were cancelled in 2020 and campaigns in 2021 are still uncertain. In response to this challenge, we conducted practical activities to support the Svalbard science community in filling gaps in scientific observations. One of our activities involved conducting airborne remote sensing campaigns in Svalbard to support scientific projects. In 2020, SIOS supported 10 scientific projects by conducting 25 hours of aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based data collection in Svalbard. This is one of the finest ways to fill the data gap in the current situation as it is practically possible to conduct field campaigns using airborne platforms in spite of travel restrictions. We are using the aerial camera and hyperspectral sensor installed onboard the Dornier DO228 aircraft operated by the local company Lufttransport to acquire aerial images and hyperspectral data from various locations in Svalbard. The hyperspectral sensor image the ground in 186 spectral bands covering the range 400-1000 nm. Hyperspectral data can be used to map and characterise earth, ice and ocean surface features, such as minerals, vegetation, glaciers and snow cover, colour and pollutants. Further, it can be used to make 3D models of the terrain as well as searching for the presence of animals (e.g. counting seals). In addition, aerial photos are particularly useful tool to follow the seasonal dynamic changes and extent in sea ice cover, tracking icebergs, ocean productivity (Chlorophyll a) and river runoff (turbidity). Data collected from the SIOS funded airborne missions will not only help to fill a few of the data gaps resulting from the lockdown but also will be used by glaciologists, biologists, hydrologists, and other Earth system scientists to understand the state of the environment of Svalbard during these times. In 2021, we are continuing this activity by conducting more airborne campaigns in Svalbard. In this presentation, we will specifically focus on the overview of projects supported by airborne remote sensing campaigns.

Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) is an international consortium to develop and maintain a regional observing system in Svalbard and the associated waters. SIOS brings together the existing infrastructure and data of its members into a multidisciplinary network dedicated to answering Earth System Science (ESS) questions related to global change. The Observing System is built around “SIOS core data” – long-term data series collected by SIOS partners. SIOS Data Management System (SDMS) is dedicated to harvesting information on historical and current datasets from collaborating thematic and institutional data centres and making them available to users. A central data access portal is linked to the data repositories maintained by SIOS partners, which manage and distribute data sets and their associated metadata. The integrity of the information and harmonisation of data is based on internationally accepted protocols assuring interoperability of data, standardised documentation of data through the use of metadata and standardised interfaces by data systems through the discovery of metadata. By these means, SDMS is working towards FAIR data compliance (making data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), among other initiatives through the H2020 funded ENVRI-FAIR project (http://envri.eu/envri-fair/).

Shridhar D. Jawak, Bo N. Andersen, Veijo Pohjola, Øystein Godøy, Kim Holmén, Agnar Sivertsen, Richard Hann, Hans Tømmervik, Andreas Kääb, Małgorzata Błaszczyk, Roberto Salzano, Bartłomiej Luks, Kjell Arild Høgda, Rune Storvold, Lennart Nilsen, Rosamaria Salvatori, Kottekkatu Padinchati Krishnan, Sourav Chatterjee, Dag A. Lorentzen, Rasmus Erlandsson, Tom Rune Lauknes, Eirik Malnes, Stein Rune Karlsen, Hiroyuki Enomoto, Ann Mari Fjæraa, Jie Zhang, Sabine Marty, Knut Ove Nygård, Heikki Lihavainen, Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) is an international partnership of research institutions studying the environment and climate in and around Svalbard. SIOS is developing an efficient observing system, where researchers share technology, experience, and data, work together to close knowledge gaps, and decrease the environmental footprint of science. SIOS maintains and facilitates various scientific activities such as the State of the Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report, international access to research infrastructure in Svalbard, Earth observation and remote sensing services, training courses for the Arctic science community, and open access to data. This perspective paper highlights the activities of SIOS Knowledge Centre, the central hub of SIOS, and the SIOS Remote Sensing Working Group (RSWG) in response to the unprecedented situation imposed by the global pandemic coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease 2019 (COVID-19). The pandemic has affected Svalbard research in several ways. When Norway declared a nationwide lockdown to decrease the rate of spread of the COVID-19 in the community, even more strict measures were taken to protect the Svalbard community from the potential spread of the disease. Due to the lockdown, travel restrictions, and quarantine regulations declared by many nations, most physical meetings, training courses, conferences, and workshops worldwide were cancelled by the first week of March 2020. The resumption of physical scientific meetings is still uncertain in the foreseeable future. Additionally, field campaigns to polar regions, including Svalbard, were and remain severely affected. In response to this changing situation, SIOS initiated several operational activities suitable to mitigate the new challenges resulting from the pandemic. This article provides an extensive overview of SIOS’s Earth observation (EO), remote sensing (RS) and other operational activities strengthened and developed in response to COVID-19 to support the Svalbard scientific community in times of cancelled/postponed field campaigns in Svalbard. These include (1) an initiative to patch up field data (in situ) with RS observations, (2) a logistics sharing notice board for effective coordinating field activities in the pandemic times, (3) a monthly webinar series and panel discussion on EO talks, (4) an online conference on EO and RS, (5) the SIOS’s special issue in the Remote Sensing (MDPI) journal, (6) the conversion of a terrestrial remote sensing training course into an online edition, and (7) the announcement of opportunity (AO) in airborne remote sensing for filling the data gaps using aerial imagery and hyperspectral data. As SIOS is a consortium of 24 research institutions from 9 nations, this paper also presents an extensive overview of the activities from a few research institutes in pandemic times and highlights our upcoming activities for the next year 2021. Finally, we provide a critical perspective on our overall response, possible broader impacts, relevance to other observing systems, and future directions. We hope that our practical services, experiences, and activities implemented in these difficult times will motivate other similar monitoring programs and observing systems when responding to future challenging situations. With a broad scientific audience in mind, we present our perspective paper on activities in Svalbard as a case study.

The 11th Symposium on Polar Science/Special session: [S] Accelerating Arctic research: Recent progress and future prospect of Arctic research, Poster presentations, Mon. 16 Nov. - Fri. 18 Dec.

The 11th Symposium on Polar Science/Special session: [S] Accelerating Arctic research: Recent progress and future prospect of Arctic research, Poster presentations, Mon. 16 Nov. - Fri. 18 Dec.

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.