Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS)

1. Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) Georg Hansen (SIOS Coordinator) Research Council of Norway (RCN), Oslo ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

2. SIOS in a nutshell • Build up an interdisciplinary environmental research infrastructure capable of observing the Earth system in the Arctic and providing the observational basis for verification of Earth System models in this region • The central European element of a Sustained Arctic Observing System (SAON) and an Arctic node of the environmental ESFRI projects • Central element: SIOS Knowledge Centre – the core infrastructure collecting, aggregating and quality-controlling the observational data and providing them to the user/stakeholder community • For more details: see SIOS presentation at: http://www.forskningsradet.no/servlet/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1234130481050&pagename=sios%2FHovedsidemal ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

3. SIOS Conceptual Structure Selected end users: Policy makers, NGOs ACIA IPCC EU European government policy boards Knowledge Centre Integrating platform Space Marine Atmospheric Terrestrial Observational platforms Selected contributing organizations UNIS NP AWI CNR IGFPAS NERC AARI PRIC ... ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

4. The SIOS Knowledge Centre • The main integrating element and exhibition window of SIOS • Data handling, storage and delivery (mostly as a portal, but with option of physical data centre), including access to Earth Observation segment (satellite data) • Interface between scientific platforms and user/stakeholder community • Facilitator for scientific integration (interdisciplinary activities, ESS) • Education and training on graduate and under-graduate levels • Public outreach activities • Coordination and service functions ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

5. Extensive infrastructure in place • Research organizations from 15 countries are present on a regular basis, operating a wide variety of land and sea-based facilities. • Norway has established an international university in Longyearbyen with students and staff from 25 countries. • Ny-Ålesund has been developed into an international, high standard field station focusing on environmental and climate research. • Svalbard is accessible all year round because of its advanced community infrastructure and its relatively mild climate. • Svalbard has the highest available data bandwidth in the High Arctic. ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

6. SIOS – Time Schedule • 9 December, 2008: SIOS on revised ESFRI Roadmap • 3 December, 2009: submission of SIOS Preparatory Phase proposal • Spring 2010: proposal accepted, contract negotiations with EC • Summer 2010 – summer 2013: SIOS Preparatory Phase project: clarification of legal status, governance structure and financial strategy and business plan, plus other strategic processes • From 2013 (at latest): SIOS implementation phase • From end of 2013: SIOS operational phase (since much infrastructure already in place) • WPs SIOS-PP: • WP 1 – PP Project Management (RCN) • WP 2 – Legal and Governance Structure (RCN) • WP 3 – Financial Strategy (RCN) • WP 4 – Infrastructure Access Policy (NPI) • WP 5 – Logistics Plan (IGFPAS) • WP 6 – Data Management and Utilization Plan (AWI) • WP 7 – Earth Observation Strategy (NSC) • WP 8 – Internal Integration Strategy (UNIS) • WP 9 – International Cooperation and Integration (CNR) ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

7. ICT vision • Two major components of SIOS: • The observational infrastructure – to a large degree existing, multi-national ownership (national polar stations of 12 (15) nations on Svalbard) • The envisaged overarching structure of the SIOS Knowledge Centre providing a ”one-stop” access to (multi-disciplinary, multi-level) environmental/ Earth System data from the Svalbard region: the true core and innovative element of the ESFRI infrastructure • Easy access to a wide spectre of environmental data with (self-explaining) formats which are as uniform as possible • Tie SIOS to similar distributed data sharing frameworks, such as INSPIRE, WIS, GEOSS, DOK-IPY Objectives WP6 The main objective of WP 6 is to build up an effective, easily accessible data management system which is fully compatible with and makes use of existing data handling systems in the thematic fields covered by SIOS. The second major goal is to develop a strategy and propose practical means how to facilitate and promote the utilization of these data in research and other user communities. In practice, the SIOS Data Management System (SDMS) will be a functionality-enabling component of the Knowledge Centre, supporting data submission, discovery, access, use and preservation of SIOS relevant data sets … ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

8. ICT requirements • Very broad spectrum of input data: • Many different scientific disciplines with largely varying amounts of data and traditions of data handling • Observation modes: ranging from single-event type measurements (scientific research rockets) via (short-term) campaigns, e.g. research vessel expeditions, to long-term regular (and formalized) monitoring programmes • Data collection modes: ranging from manual input, e.g. in case of species population parameters, to automatically recorded large data streams (e.g., GHG flux measurements, ionospheric observations, on-line oceanographic recording) • Varying degrees of data quality assessment, validation and treatment • Output data: • Should serve both the Earth System Modelling community, monitoring and long-term surveillance activities and general public information, while considering data protection and time embargo issues for some of the data sets • Format and other delivery requirements from the modelling community a very important aspect! • Has to be harmonized with other relevant data sharing framewokss, such as DOK-IPY, GEOSS, INSPIRE etc. • In summary: SIOS needs a flexible and highly modularised data management system ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

9. ICT architecture • Technical details can only be worked out when the observational set is defined and the user community (especially ESM community) has defined its requirements! • Envisaged elements: • (one-way: data extraction) portal structure (most of the data sets), mirroring existing thematic data bases, • physical data storage facility • easily accessible and treatable human and machine interfaces to metadata and data • Helpdesk Task 6.3 Utilisation of relevant existing data centres and archives SIOS will have to consider internationally distributed data management systems that are currently supported by interoperability efforts like INSPIRE, GEOSS, Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), WGISS, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), SEADATANET and WMO Information System (WIS). These efforts utilise a number of interoperability standards and semantics. Many (SIOS) scientists are already committed to some of these networks and it is not intended that SIOS should duplicate efforts, but cooperate with existing data management systems and link to these in a seamless way ... ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

10. Current Status & Timeline • Current status of ICT planning: proposal of further design work and financial planning in the frame of SIOS-Preparatory Phase project, to be started in fall 2010 • Instrumentation/observation gap analysis process in progress; to be finalized by December 2010 • Based on this analysis: concrete inventory of data provision circumstances (amount, format, delivery date, level of analysis etc.) • dialog process with ESM community started, first conclusions by early 2011 • First cost estimate of Knowledge Centre implementation early 2012, assessments of operational costs by end of 2012 ESFRI @ EGEE user forum

11. Challenges and Suggestions • Major unresolved challenge: how to meet the large diversity of data streams in a way that satisfies the as diverse needs of the scientific communities involved • None of the communities has the capacity/ experience to handle the whole spectrum of data exchange or even to make the systems compatible • Any new system has to take into account established data streams of existing international monitoring programmes • In particular: integration of ”in-situ/near-surface” data and satellite remote-sensing data for inter-comparison and joint use purposes ESFRI @ EGEE user forum