SAON: Meeting of the Board in Helsinki, Finland
The Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) has been established by the Arctic Council (AC) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) to lead the facilitation of international collaboration among government agencies, researchers, and northern residents, including indigenous people, and to promote a sustainable, and effectively coordinated circum-Arctic observing system.
At the latest meeting of the SAON Board it was decided to establish committees on (1) Observations and Networks (CON), and (2) Information and Data Services (CDIS). These Committees shall address issues that transcend individual Arctic observing and data platforms and all scales of organizational capabilities. The Committees should prepare overall strategies to improve the situation within the Northern areas regarding:
* Collection of data/information from Arctic social, economic, health and environmental sciences and observations, including permission to access geographical areas and platforms, and to present financial options for long term funding of platforms and operations (for CON)
* Establishment of a Circum-Arctic set of early warning indicators (an indicators network), focused initially on indicators of climate change that link to existing and ongoing Arctic assessments and provide the Arctic community with a status of the health of specific Arctic natural and human systems (for CON)
* Free and easy access to data and information (for CDIS)
* Integration and dissemination of data and information will be provided through a SAON-led Circum-Arctic Information System (for CDIS)
The chair of CDIS is Dr. Peter Pulsifer, National Snow and Ice Data Center, USA. The Committee will meet for the first time in November in Potsdam.
The chair of CON has not been appointed yet.
You can find the minutes from the Board meeting here