T-MOSAiC (Terrestrial Multidisciplinary distributed Observatories for the Study of Arctic Connections) has been formulated as a research and synthesis project to provide an integrated, cross-disciplinary evaluation of how the changing Arctic Ocean affects terrestrial environments, from the coastal zone to the continental interior. The project will connect studies taking place throughout the Arctic and across disciplines in order to generate new insights into northern geosystems, ecosystems and human systems. Key aspects to be addressed include connectivity, gradients, discontinuities, thresholds, extreme events and emergent properties, with specific questions that bridge sites and disciplines. Data sets will be made available via open access repositories, with the intention to create merged, interoperable data compilations. T-MOSAiC will run in parallel to the ocean-based project Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC), with temporal overlap in 2019-2020 and exchange of data sets such as climate observations from land and ocean stations.
The full science plan is available on the T-MOSAiC website.
T-MOSAiC began as an initiative of the IASC Terrestrial Working Group in April 2017. The aim is to coordinate complementary activities that will both aid and benefit from MOSAiC by extending the work to the lands surrounding the Arctic Ocean and to the northern communities who live on those lands.