Circumarctic Environmental Observatories Network


Circumarctic Environmental Observatories Network is a network of terrestrial and freshwater observation platforms, science experts and network partners promoting the collection and dissemination of environmental data from the Arctic.
CEON observation platforms include land and freshwater observatories, research infrastructures, former research sites where retrospective analyses are being or can be undertaken, data and image archive centers and community monitoring programs.

Background

The concept of initiating a CEON was first raised at a meeting of the Forum of Arctic research Operators at Arctic Science Summit Week in 2000 by Tom Pyle. Members of FARO endorsed the CEON concept specifying that CEON is to promote environmental observations in the Arctic and dissemination of these to Arctic researchers whilst encompassing and building on the strengths of existing stations and environmental observatory networks active in the Arctic.
In June 2002 Tom Pyle, head of Arctic Section of the Office of Polar Programs within the National Science Foundation of the United States tasked Patrick Webber, and Craig Tweedie with scoping and developing the CEON concept.

Development

The initial development of CEON was based on the notion that early successes will be met by facilitating the activities of existing environmental sites and networks active in the Arctic and increasing the potential for integration and syntheses between sites. Example activities include promoting increased transfer of knowledge and standardization of research methods between networks and sites, and increasing accessibility to data and linkages to multidisciplinary and international programs.
Accordingly, presentations on the CEON concept were made at numerous meetings of organizations/research programs active in the Arctic over a short period of time in order to establish an initial momentum for the development of CEON. Presentations focused on the necessity for the CEON initiative to meet the needs of the participating research community, science administrators, policy makers, industry, education and indigenous communities whilst providing linkages between disciplines and existing networks and connectivity spanning regional to circum-arctic and global scales.

Approach

Deliberately, presentations of the CEON concept have made no mention or suggestion of measurements or processes that should or could be made or investigated. Instead, observers have been asked to introduce their own bias into the development of CEON by providing feedback to the following question: "What would you do if you had the opportunity to conduct/maintain standardized and integrated time series observations across multiple research stations and networks in the Arctic?" This 'bottom-up' approach has facilitated the development and scoping of CEON based on the experience, needs and future directions envisaged by a broad range of potential CEON stakeholder and user groups.

Mission

CEON's mission is to strengthen the capacity for emerging monitoring, research and policy needs at high northern latitudes by making data available that is adequate and suitable for answering and addressing a series of well-defined key scientific questions and uncertainties.

Rationale

The CEON stakeholder community has developed the following rationale that underpins development of CEON:
Through collaboration with its partners and the development of novel cyberinfrastructure, CEON aims to provide and facilitate:
At present, CEON is being co-chaired by Terry Callaghan and Craig Tweedie. Terry and Craig oversee CEON's two Science Coordination Offices:
As CEON transitions from an initiation phase of development to an implementational phase, EUSCO and NASCO are focused on developing an improved organizational structure for CEON in consultation with the CEON stakeholder community.
EUSCO ~ CEON's European Science Coordination Office
EUSCO's primary role is to:
NASCO ~ CEON's North American Science Coordination Office
NASCO's primary role is to:
development has been a key focus of CEON's activities over the past few years. Interactive web-based mapping applications allow users to view a range of thematic map and satellite image layers, query a range of spatially explicit research and site data including sites affiliated with several international or national environmental observing networks or programs. Perhaps most importantly for CEON, users can glean an assortment of information in a single portal and then link to CEON's partnering networks to access more detailed or explicit information.
CEON has built several types of web-based mapping systems including:
The CEON - Internet Map Server has been developed to enable and enhance the visualization and search-ability of a geo-database composed of observational platforms and information sources compatible with CEON's mission. CEON-IMS includes over 175 layers of remote sensing products, maps, and information on historical and current research efforts - all of which are associated with environmental observations in the Arctic.
This information can be used freely by researchers, land managers, educators, policy makers and local communities to access spatial data and information on primarily terrestrial and freshwater research in the Arctic. The information in this application is linked to online references and other information sources hosted by data providers.
CEON-IMS has been developed by the Systems Ecology Laboratory at the University of Texas at El Paso and Nuna Technologies under several proposals sponsored by the Office of Polar Programs at the US National Science Foundation.

CEON 3D (Geobrowser)

CEON 3D is a prototype application developed with ESRI's free ArcGIS Explorer virtual globe software that is somewhat similar to Google Earth. User's can use this tool to fly to areas of interest and explore networks partnered to CEON. CEON 3D can also be used to print jpg images. CEON 3D also gives the user the ability to import maps, satellite imagery, GPS, Google Earth's kml data format and other data and view these raster or vector data alongside other CEON data. Importation of data is possible from the users' desktop, local area network, or external drive as well as from various web services.

Sponsors

Many participants involved in the development of CEON have generously provided whole or partial funding to support their attendance at meetings and participation in drafting of CEON documentation.
The following key organizations have formally endorsed the concept of CEON: