Final Project Report
The Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) is an international, researcher-driven program designed to establish the present states of the Arctic Ocean ecosystem and carbon system and of the foundational physical system that drives them. The ultimate goal of the far-seeing SAS effort is to detect environmental change by establishing decadal benchmarks to provide period comparisons. The vision is that cooperating national programs of vessel-based oceanic research will together assess the key variables during the same season and same year over a broad region of the Arctic, providing a Pan-Arctic snapshot of system status. The first SAS is ongoing, with cruises taking place in 2020-2022.
The international SAS is coordinated by an international Science Steering Committee (SSC) that includes two representatives from each of the participating countries. The program is based in the coordination office at the Bjerknes Center in Bergen Norway, led by Drs. Øyvind Paasche and Are Olsen who also are the chair and vice-chair of the SSC.
A community meeting was held on March 31, 2022 in conjunction with the Arctic Science Summit Week that was held in Tromsø, Norway. The meeting was hybrid, with some participating in-person at the University of Tromsø and others joining on-line via Zoom. Approximately 40 scientists, program managers, and early career/student investigators joined the meeting. Two early career scientists supported through IASC, Annika Margevich and Savannah Sandy, assisted and served as rapporteurs – and the workshop report is in great part based on their efforts. The goals of the meeting were to provide an update on the program, especially on the recent and planned cruises, to further plans for coordination between 2022 field programs and for syntheses of findings from across the effort, and to identify concrete action items to accomplish these syntheses, maintain forward momentum for the program, and look ahead to planning for the next decadal survey.
The meeting was very successful, with a broad review of recent and upcoming cruises and opportunities for synergies and coordination identified based on that review. Introductory talks were followed by national reports. This information then was discussed during the last hour of the workshop. A list of action items was identified to help move the program forward.
Date and Location
30th March 2022 | Tromsø, Norway ASSW2022
IASC Working Groups funding the project
- Atmosphere WG
- Cryosphere WG
- Marine WG
Project Lead
Jacqueline Grebmeier (USA)
Year funded by IASC
2019
Project Status
Completed