The report documents the findings from the Inter-Agency Arctic Requirements Workshop from January 31 to February 1, 2017 in College Park, MD.
The NOAA UAS Program has released it’s Arctic Domain Awareness Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Workshop Report documenting the work and analysis from the forum. The event was held at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, MD from January 31 to February 1, 2017. During this two-day workshop, there were three primary objectives for convening this group:
- Objective 1:Â Understand current Arctic observation requirements and areas of interest that can be satisfied by unmanned aircraft and sensors.
- Objective 2:Â Identify collaborative projects based on shared requirements and funding.
- Objective 3:Â Determine the level of participation and interest to support Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) through the collection of additional observations during field programs aimed at improving understanding of key polar processes.
Workshop participants included representatives from 19 agencies and departments from the U.S. Government, international partners, and universities. The workshop was intended to collect requirements, from which, collaborative projects would be selected to leverage resources and shared risk. These objectives were also intended to guide the group toward multi-mission opportunities across science priorities and agencies. To help meet these objectives, the workshop participants provided an overview of their individual agency’s Arctic Domain Awareness Requirements in advance of the workshop. These requirements included the identification of science priorities, observation requirements (ORs), and observing system capabilities (OSCs). Providing this input beforehand allowed for the synthesis of individual priorities into science themes for group discussion.
The desired outcome of the workshop was to identify and prioritize jointly-funded projects based on shared requirements that will be further developed and implemented in 2018 and beyond.