Towards a better use of arctic marine infrastructure: EU-PolarNet, EUROFLEETS2 and ARICE

The Polar Regions may seem remote, but the observed rapid changes
now affecting both the Arctic and Antarctic regions have resulted in significant
consequences for the weather and climate in lower latitudes, including Europe.
Environmental changes being observed, particularly in the Arctic, are a clear
indication of the impending shifts that will increasingly affect European
environment, society and industry. Changes in the Polar Regions present societal
challenges, but also economic opportunities for Europe and the world. Science is a
vital tool in understanding what is driving the rapid changes being observed at high
latitudes. Research is also necessary to make our climate models and forecasting
more realistic by identifying and reducing important sources of uncertainty that
may impair reliable prediction. However the scale of many of the questions being
posed is now recognised as being beyond the capabilities of individual nations and
strong international cooperation is needed to overcome these challenges. There is
often a need to obtain data from geographically widely separated areas of the Polar
Regions and these need complementary observational schemes to be implemented
for valid inter-comparisons. Similarly the costs of operating infrastructure in Polar
Regions are becoming increasingly challenging and there is a need therefore to
cooperate on infrastructure access and shared costs to optimise the support of
larger research programmes.
The presentation will introduce three European projects: EU-PolarNet, EUROFLEETS2
and ARICE which actively work on improving infrastructure development and access
in the Polar Regions in cooperation with international partners. The examples
given are from the Arctic Ocean but similar models of transnational access and
infrastructure sharing will apply for the Antarctic.