Heroic Efforts - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 78

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5 Heroic Efforts
Any scientific activity in the Arctic is likely to be very expensive and even today can be
hazardous. There are several ways one can go about it. The project may have modest re-
quirements for new data and/or does not require a scientist to be in a remote part of the Arc-
tic. In this case, there may be little difficulty in finding sufficient additional funds to do the
job. For example, the existing capabilities of satellite-borne remote sensing may be used or
perhaps the data gathering can be done within or a short distance from an Arctic commu-
nity. However, if the project requires physically travelling away from Arctic communities,
ships and aircraft are involved and costs skyrocket. If the geographical coverage of the pro-
ject and/or the length of observations is extensive, the mobilization of national and perhaps
international scientific cooperation will be needed for the science itself and for the logistics.
If the objective is to study how something changes over time and space (such as con-
centrations of a particular contaminant), a network of observing stations will be required.
This strategy usually starts with some existing national networks and the task is to expand
these precursors in ways that reflect the time and space demands of whatever is the object
of study. The key attributes for success are ensuring that methods and equipment provide
comparable data, the data are freely available and that arrangements will be sustainable for a
long period of time. Much of the Arctic Messenger's story is derived from this type of mon-
itoring (such as that organised by Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme [AMAP]).
Recently, the Arctic Council launched an activity called the Sustaining Arctic Observing
Networks (SAON), designed to enhance the circumpolar capability of this type of approach
in the Arctic and to expand the focus beyond the types of data traditionally used for envir-
onmental monitoring. A different strategy is needed if the objective is to investigate how