By: Maribeth S. Murray, Executive Director, Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary
Planning for the second Arctic Observing Summit, AOS 2014, is now underway. The AOS is led by the International Study of Arctic Change (ISAC). It is a task of the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) process. SOAN is led jointly by the Arctic Council and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). The AOS is part of the implementation of the 'observing change' component of the ISAC Science Plan, which also encompasses understanding and responding to Arctic change and which is an iterative international scientific program. AOS 2014 will be built on the strong foundation laid in 2013.
A draft report from the first Summit, AOS 2013, will be released in November 2013 and a final report will be available in early 2014. The AOS will continue to be a key platform to address the observation needs of Arctic stakeholders and to foster international communication and coordination of long-term observations for improving understanding and responding to system scale Arctic change. The AOS is planned as a biennial event with future AOS meetings to be held in conjunction with the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW). AOS 2014 will convene 9-11 April during the 5-11 April 2014 ASSW in Helsinki, Finland.