One of the Finnish priorities that Ambassador Aleksi Härkönen, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials, emphasizes as a success, is meteorological cooperation. Mr. Härkönen said that they have already achieved a breakthrough when the WMO and national meteorological institutes decided to actively contribute to meteorological cooperation in the Arctic.
During its Chairmanship program, Finland emphasized the need for improving both meteorological and oceanographic cooperation across the Arctic States. This would eventually enhance public safety, benefit international shipping and air traffic, as well as benefit Arctic climate science.
As the Arctic changes, weather patterns in lower latitudes are affected. The benefits of increased meteorological collaboration in the high North thus reach far beyond the Polar Circle. Not only does it improve monitoring and observation networks across the Arctic and fill geographical data gaps, it also facilitates effectively to manage and forecast risks resulting from extreme weather events
the Arctic Council mentioned.
In addition, in March 2018, the Finnish Meteorological Institute organized an Arctic Meteorological Summit in Levi, in Northern Finland. The target was to gather various stakeholders to share knowledge and develop alliances in order to strengthen Arctic observations.
The summit also gathered climate experts, industry representatives, along with representatives from the Arctic States and indigenous Permanent Participants. One of the biggest contributions of the summit was the dialogue it started between these different stakeholders.
Cooperation with the meteorological community was also improved on the Working Group level of the Arctic Council. AMAP’s Expert Group on climate continued to work on Arctic and mid-latitude weather connections and increased its membership to include representatives of the meteorological community.
This will strengthen AMAP’s work to provide the knowledge needed for adaptation and resilience
Marianne Kroglund, AMAP’s Chair, stated at the Senior Arctic Officials’ meeting in Rovaniemi in late 2018.
