Infrastructures, Facilities and Data

Europe has a long tradition and a very strong reputation for world-class scientific research in the polar regions. This research is enabled and supported by significant and substantial scientific infrastructures, facilities and platforms operated by many European nations in both the Arctic and Antarctica. Whilst there is already a degree of coordination and cooperation between European polar operators there is great potential for these considerable resources to be used more coherently and effectively to deliver the highest quality European research. There is also a significant opportunity to link much more productively with other nations in the wider international polar science community, including those without infrastructure or facilities and with businesses that operate infrastructures in the Polar Regions, such as shipping. This will allow implementation of mechanisms for joint programming of infrastructure, particularly of polar ships to allow bigger and more complex science projects to be undertaken.

The data produced by European polar research is difficult and expensive to collect and needs to be effectively managed, served, and archived for a wide range of users. However, polar data management has lacked central co-ordination at the European level, and as a result is fragmented and the data often very difficult to access and use or be supplied in a timely manner. There is also a need to link with data sets held by other polar nations, particularly those in North America, with a similarly long record of polar research.

Work Package Tasks

• Task 3.1 – Polar Platforms: research ships, stations, aircraft and autonomous instrumentation
  
  
• Task 3.2 – Satellites, communication and remote sensing
  
  
• Task 3.3 – Data Management and Interoperability

Work Package lead
Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley