Arctic PASSION at Arctic Frontiers 2024 recap

By

Sabrina Heerema

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Published:

02 Feb 2024

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Last updated:

December 24, 2025

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There was passion at the 2024 Arctic Frontiers conference. Arctic PASSION, to be specific. 

Some of the highlights included a joint Arctic Mayors’ Forum and Arctic PASSION side event, moderated by led by Patti Bruns, Secretary General of the Arctic Mayors’ Forum and Michael Karcher, Scientific Coordinator of Arctic PASSION on “Why Environmental Observation Services Matter: A conversation with Arctic communities about how environmental information can inform climate policy.” with a presentation of three services recently launched by our project,

Patti Bruns, Secretary General of the Arctic Mayors’ Forum. Photo: David Jensen @jensenmedia-04253
Arild Sundfjord, Program Leader at the Norwegian Polar Institute on Arctic PASSION’s ‘State of the Arctic Environment’ service. Photo: Michael Karcher
Dr. Guido Grosse introducing the ALEX (Arctic Landscape EXplorer) tool and it’s development in Alaska. Photos: Michael Karcher
Ilaria Crotti presented the Atmospheric Pollution service, and asked for audience feedback. Photo: Michael Karcher
Michael Karcher presenting Arctic PASSION at Arctic Frontiers 2024. Photo: Andreas Preußer

Adam Stepien made a remote presentation of his and Pavel Tkach’s work with subnational policymakers summarizing results from  the Arctic Spirit conference in Rovaniemi where green transition in Arctic cities and municipalities were discussed in November 2023.

The session presented Arctic PASSION services and discussed the needs and requirements as seen by Arctic experts and practitioners in local and regional governance in a panel discussion and an open conversation with all session participants. The goal of the session was to improve the ongoing development of services developed in Arctic PASSION as well as developing ideas for an improved overall structure of a future Arctic observing system that can help tackle the challenges that lie ahead in the Arctic.

Group picture of all panellists and the service presenters (L-R): Brynjar Andersen Saus, Agnete Pedersen Evertsen, Annika Myrén, Ilaria Crotti, Guido Grosse, Arild Sundfjord. Photo: Michael Karcher.

The side event was followed by interdisciplinary poster sessions including posters from Jan Rene Larsen, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and assessment Programme (AMAP) on ‘Empowering indigenous and local perspective’, and from Ilka Matero, a data officer representing the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) on ‘Defining Shared Arctic Variables on the theme Permafrost’.

Jan Rene Larsen presenting the SAON ROADS work with Arctic PASSION being a partner on ‘Empowering indigenous and local perspective’. Photo: Michael Karcher
Ilkka Matero presenting the SAV work on ‘Permafrost’ posters at Arctic Frontiers 2024. Photo: Michael Karcher

There were also presentations, including one from Andrew Fleming, Head of the British Antarctic Survey’s Mapping and Geographic Information Centre, who presented his work in Arctic PASSION on improving ways to quantify risk to ships operating in sea ice as required by the IMO Polar Code. This work is carried out in cooperation with PAME, national ice-services, ship owners and operators, insurers, marine safety organisations to reduce the risk of shipping incidents in the Arctic in the session on ‘Navigating a Changing Arctic: Innovations for Sustainable Maritime Development’. 

Andrew Fleming presenting at Arctic Frontiers 2024. Photo: Michael Karcher

The scientific session on “Observing Arctic Ice-Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions: Changes and Effects on Interannual to Centennial Timescales” offered a great opportunity for Andreas Preußer, sea ice scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), to present and discuss the ongoing work on sea icemass balance buoys within Arctic PASSION, and you can see his presentation here. The newly created thickness data set was of high interest for many researchers on site, so that we hope it will get picked up and widely utilized in the months and years to come.